Zayd Bonyadi

Zayd Bonyadi
Born	زيد بنيامين 27th of May, 1980 Iraq
Occupation	Journalist, writer.
Nationality	Iraqi
Citizenship	USA
Education	Baghdad University
Alma mater	Baghdad University, Baghdad

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Zaid Bonyadi was born on the 27th of May in 1980. He is an Iraqi journalist born in Kirkuk, 300 kilometers northeast of the capital of Iraq. He worked in multiple Arabic and western organizations and currently works as a reporter in Washington for “Sawa Radio” which is funded by the American congress in Springfield, Virginia.

Life

Zaid moved from Kirkuk to Baghdad in his early life and lived most of his life in the capital of Iraq, Baghdad, as he studied in al Bohtori primary school, then al Mansoor middle school and al Mansour high school for boys’, which he graduated from in 1998. He completed his higher education in the engineering college at Baghdad university in 2002, then he changed his major to journalism and press in 2003. This was after he traveled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to follow his passion for journalism, especially after the US invasion of Iraq.

In Journalism

Zaid was noticed in his field when he joined Elife online newspaper as an editor in the sports section, which was issued from London in May 2005. He quickly transferred to work in other sections of the paper, especially the translation section. He wrote articles that explain the history of multiple politicians who had a major hand in the affairs of the Middle East, such as Nuri Al Said and Ali Hassan Al Majid, the cousin of Saddam Hussain, the late Iraqi president. He also worked on translations of articles documenting the events that have occurred in the area, like the interrogation of Saddam Hussain and the American military education specialized in the invasion of Iraq and the reasons for the Iraqi military forces’ defeat in 2003.

In January 2009, Zaid covered the Arabian Gulf Cup in Oman, Muscat, and his article caused a crisis after a disagreement on the television rights between al Jazeera the rightful channel and the other khaliji channels that were not allowed inside the stadiums. The crisis started after the president of the channel of Dubai sports, Rashid al Ameri, said that al Jazeera sports channel occupied two stadiums but not Muscat. This was considered offensive to Omani channels and led al Ameri to deny what he said and what was issued about him in an interview with al dawri and the Qatari cup, without letting the team of E-life mediate, which led the paper to publish this recording of him on its website online.

Disagreement with the chief of Dubai Police

In 2009, Zaid was exposed to heavy and brutal criticism from the commander in chief of Dubai Police, Dahi Khalfan Tamim, regarding the article he translated for the British paper, The Times. The article carried issues in Dubai due to the weak economy because of the crisis that took over the world after the fall of the real estate market. Tamim accused Bonyadi of being a part of the rumors being spread about locals’ cars getting stacked in Dubai international airport and most foreigners going back to their countries because of a bad economy and zero job openings, which Tamim denied.

The killing of the American ambassador in Benghazi

On the 12th of September 2012, the American magazine “Foreign Policy” pointed out that Zaid Bonyadi was the first to publish a photograph that confirmed the death of the American ambassador in Libya, Christopher Stevens, as a result of an attack on the building affiliated with the consulate of Washington in Benghazi.

Twitter suspension

^{On the 20th of August 2014, the administration of the social media website, Twitter, suspended Bonyadi’s personal account after he was one of the first to share the photograph of the slaughter of the American journalist James Foley by ISIS.}

^{The suspension of his account caused some reactions from western papers, as the American magazine “Foreign Policy” said that the step Twitter took opposes the platform’s policy for free speech and not closing accounts that share news or violent comments in the name of journalism. The magazine also added that the step Twitter took by suspending Zaid’s account was taken even when Bonyadi shared a screenshot of a video documenting the slaughter and he did not share a link to the video. When the Huffington Post, the American paper, pointed out that this suspension revealed the difficulty Twitter faces with distinguishing the motives of online users.}

^{On the 23rd of October 2018, Twitter’s administration suspended Bonyadi’s account for the second time for unknown reasons.}

References

This article "Zayd Bonyadi" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Zayd Bonyadi. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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