Was Wikipedia correct to censor news of David Rohde's capture?

Over at tech blog The Inquisitr, Kim LaCapria arrives at a similar conclusion. "Luckily for Wikipedia, this issue was clearly life or death," LaCapria writes. "But what if it isn’t?... [H]ow can you stop the crowd from releasing possibly harmful information – and should you? If so, when?"

Importantly, LaCapria and Eaton are here addressing Wikipedia not as a traditional news outlet, but as a new media machine – one beholden to an entirely different set of rules than, say, the Monitor. Traditional media rely on a complex, top-down vetting process; new media pushes all information onto the web, and leaves the vetting to the crowd. Under this rejiggered rubric, the Times – which relies on a top-down infrastructure – can feel free to withhold potentially dangerous information. Wikipedia, on the other hand, cannot.

Element of danger

Others have argued that Wales handled the situation correctly. "There are two competing values to balance here," Murad Ahmed writes at the Times Online:

The first is freedom to disseminate information. The second is the effect it has on individual concerned. Put another way: freedom of speech vs a right to privacy. The internet (and newspapers generally) are, to my mind, skewed correctly towards freedom of speech. But sometimes someone’s right to privacy is so important it overrides the rule. Trying to keep Mr Rohde alive is one such example. Wikipedia’s maturity should be applauded.

Safety, in other words, trumps freedom of speech – a theme echoed by Adam Reilly, the media critic at the Boston Phoenix. Reilly parses the debate in terms of life and death: "The Times simply had do everything in its power to increase [Rodhe's] chances of survival." Furthermore, Reilly explains, although Wikipedia did "constrain" the freedom of its users – by erasing or otherwise editing posts on Rodhe's kidnapping – there was no first amendment violation.

"The individuals who wanted to get word of Rohde's kidnapping out could have contacted countless news outlets, for example; or nabbed a relevant blogspot account to publicize Rohde's situation and Wikipedia's response; or simply stood on the streetcorner handing out leaflets that did the same," Reilly concludes.

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