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Iraq to get first independent news outlet

The charitable foundation of the Reuters news agency plans to announce this week that it will be turning a grass-roots Iraqi news Web site into the country`s first independent commercial news service. The Web site, Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq) has relied on freelance workers, help from three independent Iraqi newspapers, and feeds from the Reuters Arabic-language service to publish hundreds of articles a month in and about Iraq.

"There weren`t really any real journalists in Saddam`s day," said Geert Linnebank, editor in chief of Reuters. "There now needs to be a local ability to cover the democratic process."

Assem Abdel-Mohsen, an Egyptian and veteran Reuters correspondent in the Middle East who now edits Aswat al-Iraq from Cairo, said: "The standards of Iraqi journalists, were, in general, pathetic. Now they are enthusiastic and progressing rapidly."

It is hoped that the site will become a full-fledged news wire, managed and staffed by Iraqi journalists in Baghdad and operated independently of Reuters. It will use $800,000 from United Nations funds to create a newsroom and to base reporters in each Iraqi province. When the service goes live in a few months, it will feed breaking news to both Iraqi and foreign news outlets.