CBC News exec explains policy on kidnapping coverage

Esther Enkin, executive director of CBC News operations notes that viewers have been critical because the CBC successfully suppressed coverage when reporter Melissa Fung, pictured at left, was abducted in Afghanistan even while CBC reported others.

"Each one of these incidents poses an ethical dilemma for us. As journalists, our instincts are always to publish, to share the information, to hold the facts up to the cold light of day," Enkin wrote on CBC's web page. "But there are also some basic ethical principles we try to adhere to in the practice of our trade. In these cases, the principle that is paramount is 'minimize harm.'"

The CBC is adding guidelines to its "Journalistic Standards and Practices," she said.

Ms Fung appeared on a panel on reporting in Afghanistan at the Canadian Journalism Foundation this week. She declined to discuss her abduction.