When a reporter's safety outweighs a scoop
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Posted by Kelly Fincham at 9/9/2009 9:25 AM EDT
It's not often that you get to be in the middle of an ethical dilemma and a huge scoop.
But that's where IrishCentral was on Saturday afternoon when we got a tip-off that Stephen Farrell (above) a second reporter for the New York Times had been kidnapped in Afghanistan.
We posted the story because Farrell holds Irish citizenship and because it was a worldwide scoop - and that's what journalists live for.
But then the Times contacted us and asked us to take it down.
Apparently we really were the first with the news.
Publisher Niall O'Dowd agreed to the Times's request because we decided that the reporter's safety outweighed the story.
As of this morning, Farrell has been freed in a military operation although his translator, Sultan Munadi was killed.
What do you think?
What to do when a reporter's the person making the news?
