Kidnapped Times Reporter Welcomed Back In Newsroom

Yesterday, NY Times reporter David Rohde returned to the NY Times newsroom, a week and a half after escaping seven months of captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Taliban kidnappers. He appeared with his fellow kidnap victim, Tahir Ludin, a reporter who worked as his translator and guide; the Times' Clyde Haberman wrote, "In an intensely emotional moment, the two men walked into the Times newsroom to enormous waves of applause from scores of reporters and editors... As the long ovation continued, Mr. Ludin wiped away tears. Some in the newsroom seemed near tears themselves."

Rohde's escape has been viewed as miraculous but the Times' secrecy has drawn some criticism. The Times admitted to not reporting on the kidnapping to lessen the risk to Rohde's life and even got other news organizations, including Al-Jazeera, to agree on a news blackout. AP senior managing editor John Daniszewski told the Washington Post, "It is not the most comfortable position to be in. Your instinct is to publish what you know. But we felt there was just too high a risk something would happen to him." And this past week, the Times revealed it worked with Wikipedia to keep the kidnapping off the Wikipedia website.

During Rohde's captivity, the Times was actively working for his freedom—ABC News says Taliban guards were bribed, by the Times-hired private security company with CIA ties, though, "It was not clear what role, if any, [the bribes] may have played." Gawker asked the Times "if the paper plans to publish a first-person account by Rohde of the kidnapping and escape," to which the Times spokeswoman replied, "There is nothing I can say about this at this point."