Sultan Mohammad Munadi (Persian: سلطان محمد منادی; 22 November 1976[1] – 9 September 2009) was an Afghan journalist, reporter, production manager and translator.
[1] In 1996, the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul, forcing Munadi to temporarily abandon his undergraduate studies.
[2] Munadi joined the Afghan staff of The New York Times in 2002, following the ouster of the Taliban and establishment of an interim government.
[2] In 2006, Munadi joined the staff of Good Morning Afghanistan (GMA), which is produced by AwaNama Productions.
[2] On 5 September 2009, Munadi and his colleague Stephen Farrell were kidnapped by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan near Kunduz.
Munadi and Farrell were in the area interviewing local residents about a recent NATO airstrike on two fuel tankers (that had been kidnapped by Taliban militants) which had allegedly killed Afghan civilians.
The Taliban reminded Munadi of a 2007 kidnapping in which an Italian reporter, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, was freed while his Afghan translator was killed and beheaded.
Munadi's death and the failure to retrieve his body resulted in widespread anger among Afghan journalists, claiming that Munadi's death revealed a double standard by international forces over the treatment of Western reporters versus local Afghan journalists.