Hadi al-Mahdi

Who is Hadi al-Mahdi?

Hadi al-Mahdi, an Iraqi, was working as a freelance journalist and radio talk show host of "To Whoever Listens," which was broadcast by Radio Demozy out of Baghdad Iraq. He was assassinated in his home.

While al-Mahdi was one of 95 journalists killed in the last ten years, his death was widely noted in the intellectual community of Iraq. According to the New York Times story after his death, "perhaps none of the killings has resonated so deeply in a nook of society that welcomed war with such eagerness."

The New York Times, which wrote a profile on him one year before he was killed, compared him to "Rush Limbaugh" in his visibility and impact: "arguably the most breathtaking exercise of free speech in a place where its limits are still being established. It is, by some accounts, one of the most popular programs on the air in Baghdad. It is, without question, immensely entertaining."