Antiwarblog.com reports that Australian journalist John Martinkus, who was kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq, was promptly released when his kidnappers searched google for his articles.

Iraqi militants who kidnapped a reporter in Baghdad and threatened to kill him Googled his name to investigate his work before releasing him unharmed.

Australian John Martinkus was seized early on Saturday and held for nearly 24 hours before being freed.

His executive producer at an Australian news network, Mike Carey, said that the Internet - often used by Iraqi militants to air grisly images of hostages being beheaded - probably saved Martinkus.

“They Googled him and then went onto a website and saw that he was who he was, and that was instrumental in letting him go, I think, or swinging their decision.”

Carey said the company only heard of Martinkus’s abduction after his release.

“I got a call from John saying, ‘Mate, I’m at my fixer’s house, they’ve dropped us at the fixer’s house. I’ve been kidnapped but I’m free’,” he said.

Fixers are local people employed to help journalists.

Martinkus said his kidnappers initially threatened to kill him, before checking on his background.

He said he was treated well once he had told his kidnappers he was an independent reporter not linked to the United States-led coalition in Iraq.