ABU DHABI // Mohamad Abdulmuhsen is as much at home reporting on sports events as he is in a war zone.
The 48-year-old Emirati Abu Dhabi TV veteran has had a long and varied career, which started in radio in 1983.
“I liked radio since I was a child. I used to sleep with it on next to me, or when I was doing my homework,” he says.
“I was specifically interested in poetry so I excelled in the Arabic language.”
After high school Mr Abdulmuhsen enrolled in a one-year professional radio course run by Sawt Al Arab radio in Cairo, where he was trained by renowned personalities from across the Arab world.
After he finished ahead of all his male classmates, and second overall in his class of 30, it seemed his childhood passion was indeed turning into much more.
After six months in RAK radio, he moved to Abu Dhabi TV, which is owned by Abu Dhabi Media, the publisher of The National, where he hosted a six-hour programme every Friday.
That led to a chance meeting with the UAE’s most prominent figure.
“I was once chosen to be the first Emirati anchor to present daily reports on the closing festival for end of season camel races,” he recalls.
“So during one of the times when I was in Al Wathba, Sheikh Zayed arrived and I had the chance to interview him.”
During the interview he asked Sheikh Zayed if it was possible to establish a UAE camel racing federation.
“His response was clear as he always took his decisions months before announcing them,” he says.
Sheikh Zayed replied that such plans were already in place.
“Four months later, the federation was established … and I was the first to report the scoop during that interview.”
In another incident, he was doing live commentary on a boat show when heavy fog descended.
“The fog suddenly increased and we could not see the picture at all.
“So I started improvising by commenting on the history of this sport and Sheikh Zayed’s interest in it.”
The command came to “tell Mohamad that Sheikh Zayed is watching the race so he has to continue”.
And he did.
“I kept calling to find out who the top five were and would talk about them.”
Mr Abdulmuhsen went on to cover the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict in the 1980s.
“The goal was to meet Afghan leaders while in Peshawar, Pakistan,” he explains, “so when we arrived there we started asking for them.
“So one man said he would take us to them, but first he took us to the souk to buy local clothes and shoes. Then we rode with them to go meet the leaders.
“To our surprise when the journey ended we were told: ‘Congratulations you are in Afghanistan’.
“When they sensed our shock, they said: ‘Why else do you think we dressed you up? So you could take photos? It was to pass you through the checkpoints’.”
He still remembers the “horrific war sounds” as they heard the Soviet jets fly over.
Then they were invited for lunch inside a cave – which happen to house a live missile. “As we were leaving I asked to use the toilet, they laughed and told me to walk in that direction and suit myself.”
After he had walked for 400 metres, one of the men called out to him: “Do not go far, the area is filled with mines.”
“I froze in my place and walked back to them.”
After taking more than five hours of live footage in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they prepared a programme that was broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV with the title The Road to Kabul.
hdajani@thenational.ae
