The New York Times (and other news organizations) may have some hard thinking to do about ethics standards. When an American soldier disappeared in Afghanistan Tuesday and fell presumably into militant hands, a wire report published yesterday in the Times detailed the whereabouts of the soldier when he disappeared.

Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in the Mullakheil area of eastern Paktika province, where there is an American base.

They published the details despite the military’s refusal to give the circumstantial details – and despite this comment from a military spokeswoman:

”We are not providing further details to protect the soldier’s well-being,” she said.

Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

Compare that to the Times‘ editors’ decision to withhold all information about their reporter David Rohde when he was captured by militants in Afghanistan – to protect his safety.

Until now, the kidnapping has been kept quiet by The Times and other media organizations out of concern for the men’s safety.

“From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David’s family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages,” said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times. “The kidnappers initially said as much. We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David’s plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support.”