For seven months, New York Times reporter David Rohde was held by Taliban kidnappers. During his captivity, both his newspaper and Wikipedia kept quiet about his plight. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales reportedly agreed to a request from The New York Times to delete all references to the kidnapping on Rohde’s Wikipedia entry. Thus began a cat-and-mouse game, with anywhere from one to several users repeatedly posting news of Rohde’s capture on Wikipedia and Wikipedia representatives repeatedly deleting that information.
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Wikipedia and the Kidnapped Reporter: Censor or Savior?
Posted by: Richard Adhikari June 30, 2009 05:15 AMFor seven months, New York Times reporter David Rohde was held by Taliban kidnappers. During his captivity, both his newspaper and Wikipedia kept quiet about his plight. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales reportedly agreed to a request from The New York Times to delete all references to the kidnapping on Rohde’s Wikipedia entry. Thus began a cat-and-mouse game, with anywhere from one to several users repeatedly posting news of Rohde’s capture on Wikipedia and Wikipedia representatives repeatedly deleting that information.