As awful as this whole situation is, I can't really think of anything the journalists could have done that wouldn't have either put their own lives in jeopardy or risked getting American journalists shuttered out of the community or country, preventing horrors like this from being documented altogether.
I guess CNN could have ponied up $2000 for the family so they didn't have to sell their daughter in the first place, but then they'd probably have to deal with an angry, probably Taliban-affiliated pedophile as well as the chance that other families will take inspiration from the situation and either fabricate or deliberately place themselves in similarly horrible scenarios in hopes of getting money from the network too.
As awful as this whole situation is, I can't really think of anything the journalists could have done that wouldn't have either put their own lives in jeopardy or risked getting American journalists shuttered out of the community or country, preventing horrors like this from being documented altogether.
I guess CNN could have ponied up $2000 for the family so they didn't have to sell their daughter in the first place, but then they'd probably have to deal with an angry, probably Taliban-affiliated pedophile as well as the chance that other families will take inspiration from the situation and either fabricate or deliberately place themselves in similarly horrible scenarios in hopes of getting money from the network too.
Fine ethical line here...
I didn't think it was defensible until I read your comment.