View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
March 17, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 2:42pm

Web fills Iraq info gap

By Press Gazette

By Caitlin Pike

Iraqi media can now pool their news coverage following the launch of
a web project set up by the Reuters Foundation charity and the United
Nations Development Programme.

Newspapers, magazines and broadcast media can submit news items to
an Internet site, www.aswataliraq.info, (‘Voices of Iraq’) and publish
or broadcast news items submitted by other contributors.

The Voices of Iraq site also carries reports from a network of individual Iraqi journalists and from the Reuters Arabic Service.

The aim of the site is to fill the information gap left by the absence of a national news agency.

Jo
Weir of the Reuters Foundation said: “The need to improve the range and
quality of domestic news available to Iraqi media is urgent. Since the
fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, new uncensored media have emerged, but
they have struggled to report events in a country of 26 million people
where insecurity makes it risky to move around and inadequate
telephones hamper communication.”

The website is edited from
Cairo and contributions from Iraqi media are coordinated by a local
journalist in Baghdad. The scheme is being directed by Paul Eedle, a
former senior editor of Reuters who has reported extensively from Iraq.
A group of 11 Iraqi media editors is involved in planning to develop
the current project into a fullscale national news agency.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network