An Iraqi news web site is set to have a makeover to become the country’s first independent commercial news service.

According to the New York Times, the charitable foundation of the Reuters news agency plans to turn Aswat al-Iraq (which translates as ‘voice of Iraq’), into a fully-fledged news wire managed and staffed by Iraqi journalists in Baghdad. It will use $800,000 from the United Nations 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.

The web site has been relying on 30 freelance workers and help from three independent Iraqi newspapers to produce its articles. This new investment aims to encourage more Iraqi journalists to gain control of the news gathering 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.”