Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/after-reporters-escape-from-taliban-media-weigh-ethical-questions Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript New York Times reporter David Rohde and an Afghan journalist escaped a Taliban compound after being held since November, surprising many who had not been aware of the kidnapping. Times executive editor Bill Keller and Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute discuss the story. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Next tonight, two stories on the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan: a journalist's escape and the drug war.Jeffrey Brown has the journalist story. JEFFREY BROWN: After seven months in captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, New York Times reporter David Rohde and his Afghan translator escaped their Taliban captors Saturday and made their way to a Pakistani army base.The 41-year-old disappeared November 10th en route to interview a Taliban leader outside of Kabul. While working to win Rohde's release, New York Times officials had withheld news of the kidnapping, fearing publicity would put him at greater risk.Rohde has reported from Afghanistan off and on since 2001. That year, he spoke on the NewsHour about the dangers of covering the war there.DAVID ROHDE, New York Times reporter: You end up just relying on what you can see with your own eyes. And you try to go to these places to see what's happening so you can provide accurate reporting, and that's, unfortunately, what led to our four colleagues being killed. That's all you can do in these kind of situations.And there are many rumors here, and you need to go chase them down. It's just basically luck, in terms of how these things happen. JEFFREY BROWN: This was the second time Rohde had been taken hostage. The Serbian army imprisoned and interrogated him for 10 days in 1995 after he uncovered evidence of a massacre in Bosnia.And joining us now, Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, and Kelly McBride, who teaches and writes on journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in Florida.Mr. Keller, take us back to last November. What was David Rohde reporting on when kidnapped? And what can you tell us about who took him and what they wanted? BILL KELLER, New York Times: David was working on a book about the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, and he, to complete a chapter he was working on, he wanted to interview a particular Taliban commander outside of Kabul and arranged to do that.He, I think, knew that there was some risk involved, because he did leave behind a note suggesting various people who should be contacted if he didn't make it back, but he also said in the note that he had, you know, done a fairly careful calculation, decided that this guy was OK, and that the trip would be safe.