Independent news agency set to launch in Iraq

London, 8 August 2005 —A fledging internet news service developed by the Reuters Foundation and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) has been given the green light to become Iraq’s first independent and commercially viable news agency, run and staffed by Iraqi journalists.

Late last year Reuters Foundation, a charitable trust specialising in journalism training, and UNDP established an online ‘news-exchange’, www.aswataliraq.info  (Voices of Iraq) to provide a means for Iraqi stringers to share their stories.

With additional resources now secured from both UNDP and AECI, this service will be developed to create a news agency providing breaking news to local, regional and international media. The agency will have journalists reporting from each of the 18 governorates in Iraq giving a full picture of the different events affecting local communities countrywide.

The Aswat al-Iraq site currently publishes over 600 news items a month. The reports are drawn from 30 stringer correspondents and a group of contributing media organisations including three of Iraq’s key independent newspapers. News items from the service have already been widely published in the Iraqi press.

Reuters Foundation has provided journalism training to over 50 Iraqi journalists contributing to Voices of Iraq in workshops held in Amman, London and Cairo. Similar training will be provided for journalists recruited to the new agency.

An inaugural meeting of a group of Iraqi media editors involved in the development of the agency took place in London last month.

Geert Linnebank, Reuters Editor-in Chief, said, “The development of a robust, independent and reliable media industry in Iraq is of fundamental importance to the world’s understanding of this nation and its people. This new agency, the first of its kind in Iraq’s history, will have a profound effect on how this country’s story is told. Staffed and run by local journalists reporting on their own people and governments, I am sure it will become an indispensable source which will provide a much fuller picture than we have today of the key issues and events really driving this country’s development.”

Paolo Lembo, UNDP-Iraq’s Director said: “This project has brought momentum and a significant impulse to the creation of a free and reliable Iraqi media, and thus becomes part of the foundation for democratic progress. The establishment of an independent news agency represents an important step towards the strengthening of professional journalism in Iraq and an incomparable means to facilitate social dialogue and promote democracy”.

For more information, contact: Yasmeen Khan, Reuters media relations Tel: +44 (0) 207 542 0496, Yasmeen.khan@reuters.com. Mobile: + 44 (0) 7990 560496.