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IREX Iraq News
Launch of National Iraqi News Agency (NINA)
Behind the blast walls and checkpoints that carve through Baghdad, above a street lined with long-shuttered international airline offices and dusty antiquarians, an independent Iraqi news agency has come to life. The authoritative, professional coverage supplied by the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) will help Iraqi media outlets provide their audiences with impartial, accurate information. Owned and operated by Iraqi media professionals, NINA debuted at www.ninanews.com in conjunction with the Iraqi constitutional referendum on October 15, 2005.
Opening a new news agency would be challenging anywhere, but the NINA team, backed by IREX through USAID’s Iraq Civil Society and Media Support Program, faced unusual hurdles. Electricity comes from a roaring generator installed on the sidewalk. Curfews, travel bans, and the insecurity of moving about after dark corral the staff. As well, journalists need to either undo years of absolute conformity to the limits of a state propaganda agency or learn from scratch the requirements of being a professional news reporter.
By its second day, NINA had produced several dozen news items, including the first results from the national referendum. As it develops, NINA will offer news and feature articles in Arabic on the country’s political, economic, business, and social life. Editors at the Baghdad headquarters are using cutting-edge news-processing technology to write, edit, and transmit articles. Full-time correspondents in Erbil, Hilla, and Basra contribute to coverage along with freelance reporters elsewhere in the country.
NINA is designed as a commercial enterprise that will become sustainable by selling its news products in Iraq and abroad to media outlets, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, international agencies, and others seeking trusted information. Initial delivery via the Internet will be replaced by state-of-the-art wireless broadband technology (WiFi), making transmission and reception of NINA’s services secure and independent.
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