Bridget Thackwray and Topher Richwhite's wedding. Photo / Danelle Bohane and Sean Beale
For months a high-profile Kiwi influencer couple was dark online.
In usual circumstances, headlines would soon emerge, concerned followers would speak out and the pair would perhaps issue a statement reassuring fans they were okay.
But when Expedition Earth influencers Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray abruptly stopped posting after they entered Iran in early July, their disappearance went unreported.
Listen to the full interview with David Fisher below
Since their ordeal was finally shared this week, questions have been raised about why the media knew the couple had been detained - yet only now, months on, published any news of their plight.
Senior Herald journalist David Fisher sat down with the In the Loop podcast to explain how these rare situations unfold and why the media, in some cases, do not publicise missing Kiwis.
Fisher said it was "really unusual" that the media did not report on the case when it first arose, but said highlighting their situation would have made them more of a "political tool" for the Iranian regime which could have placed them in a worse position.
"Iran would have clearly known they had a lever, with which they could use to try shift the West."
Mfat had declined to comment on the couple's situation since August.
It is understood that Mfat believed any news reporting on the couple's situation in Iran would pose a serious risk to their safety.
Fisher told the show there was only one other similar case he could recall where they held a story of a Kiwi Red Cross nurse who had been kidnapped by Isis forces.
"If she became a public figure, then again she would become a tool that that regime could use to advance its own interests. And those interests, kidnapping for ransom, is now part of the terrorists playbook. It's what you do and there's a lot of money to be made there."
