Muntadhir al-Zaidi was raised in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Zaidi graduated with a degree in communication from Baghdad University. He began working as a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV in 2005. He first became known as a victim of a kidnapping by unknown assailants in November 2007. Al-Zaidi has also been arrested twice by United States armed forces. He lives in a two room apartment within central Baghdad. He is of the Shi'a-Muslim faith, and unmarried.
"One of his best reports was on Zahra, a young Iraqi school girl killed by the occupation forces while en route to school," said Ahmed Alaa, a close friend and colleague of al-Zaidi's at al-Baghdadia television who talked to Islam Online. Alaa said al-Zaidi documented the tragedy in his reportage, complete with interviews with her family, neighbors and friends. "This report earned him the respect of many Iraqis and won him many hearts in Iraq" he said. Al-Zaidi once also turned down an offer to work for what he termed "a pro-occupation channel". Friends said al-Zaidi had been "emotionally influenced" by the destruction he'd seen in his coverage of the US bombing of Sadr City.
Muzhir al-Khafaji, al-Zaidi's boss at the TV station, describes al-Zaidi as a "proud Arab and an open-minded man." He added, "He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam's regime." On politics, al-Zaidi said "I’m Iraqi and I’m proud of my country." Friends of al-Zaidi said he utterly rejected the occupation and the civil clashes. They said he believed the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was a "legalization of the occupation."
Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam's regime and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian that al-Zaidi "reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He not only followed US Apache helicopters' trails of death and destruction, but he was also among the first to report every 'sectarian' atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let the victims talk first".
[edit] Kidnapping and detention
On Friday morning, November 16, 2007, al-Zaidi was kidnapped on his way to work in central Baghdad. Unknown armed men forced him into a car, where he was beaten until he lost consciousness. The assailants used al-Zaidi's necktie to blindfold him and bound his hands with shoelaces. He was held captive with little food and drink and questioned about his work as a journalist. During his disappearance, al-Zaidi was reported missing by Iraq's Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. On November 18, Reporters Without Borders "voiced deep concern" in a statement about al-Zaidi's detention. No ransom demand was made, and al-Zaidi's kidnappers released him still blindfolded, on to a street three days later around 3 a.m. on Monday, November 19, 2007, after which al-Zaidi's brother picked him up. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mentioned al-Zaidi's kidnapping in a December 2007 report that listed violent incidents in the media, in particular, incidents targeting journalists in Baghdad. According to the report, "journalists and media workers and other professionals continue to be targets for kidnapping and assassination."
After his kidnapping, al-Zaidi told Reuters; "My release is a miracle. I couldn't believe I was still alive." The editor of Al-Baghdadia TV described the kidnapping as an "act of gangs, because all of Muntadhar's reports are moderate and unbiased." Al-Zaidi has also been arrested twice by the United States armed forces in Iraq. In January 2008, al-Zaidi was detained overnight by US troops as they searched his residence. The soldiers later offered him an apology.
