French Hostage Taker Calls French News Blog First.

Pierre Haski of French news blog Rue 89 was called by Christian Denisot, an unemployed 45 year old man, who had taken two people hostage at gun point inside a government employment center. Although Pierre initially thought it all a bad joke, these suspicions were quickly allayed upon his receiving an email from the address of one of the hostages. Pierre Haski then began to tweet the demands and declarations of the hostage taker that consisted mainly of antisemitic ramblings and nonsense. The controversy here is in the direct involvement of a news organization in the process of making the news. Pierre Haski has defended his actions by saying he only sought to lessen tensions and he felt that by maintaining this line of communication open with Mr. Denisot that he could do so and perhaps avoid a situation that escalated the crisis or brought harm to one of the hostages. As social media and the pervasive use of the internet progresses, one can only expect more incidents like this in the future. Additionally, it shows the shift away from traditional media may be more pronounced than initially believed.

[New York Times]