ARBIL / Aswat al-Iraq: The Independent Aswat al-Iraq News Agency will be celebrating next Monday, Nov.
21st, the 7th anniversary of its establishment and its entrance in the 8th year, in order to march forward.
This, despite the financial crisis the agency is facing; to continue its genuine press message, which is achieved by its cadres in special, and the press media in general, based on its active concepts, stemming from vocation, balance and neutrality.
Aswat al-Iraq's establishing cadres and other press energies that followed it, have worked day and night, since its establishment on November 21, 2004, and over the past seven difficult years, to cover the Iraqi events and their activities, both internally and abroad.
The said cadre are proud of the vocational and exceptional achievements of this Agency that has registered an unprecedented incident in the history of the press activity in Iraq, being the first independent Iraqi news agency.
Aswat al-Iraq is considered among the few Iraqi press institutions to allocate large amounts of its budget to training its own cadres and press cadres of other institutions, which has assisted in creating an exceptional achievement in the press vocational coverage.
The large press family of the Agency, which includes male and female colleagues has been forced to work under difficult personal circumstances, stemming from their mass activity, forming a united team, strongly linked to the vocational spirit that was reflected by the Agency over the past periods.
These colleagues, who are continuing their activity with the same spirit, continue to regard their Agency with love and respect for this outstanding press project.
Our Agency, similar to all other independent press institutions in our country, had faced difficult financial circumstances during the current year.
But it had managed to continue its activity this year, through cooperation among its cadres and their understanding of those circumstances.
The threat of ceasing activity is facing all independent press institutions, unless they secure necessary financial revenues to help them in continuing their activity.
Despite the percentage of success, achieved by Aswat al-Iraq in the field of necessary revenues to continue its activity, with a reduced cadre and through monthly subscriptions and advertisements by certain companies and subscribers, the current transforming circumstances suffered by the country and the scarce number of advertisements, have made its position to become a source of news a continuous challenge.
Taking into consideration the above crisis, Aswat al-Iraq's family is celebrating its establishment anniversary, with paying great respect to its three Journalists, Nizar al-Radi, Sahar al-Haidary and Arif Ali, who lost their lives serving their Agency in Southern, Central and Northern Iraq in mid 2007.
The Agency also expresses gratitude for the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Education, Sciences & Culture Organization (UNESCO), who have financed and supported the Agency over the past few years.
And we thank the Iraqi Press Media, who had supported the Agency, since its establishment, especially the Institutions that participated in its news services since 2009, along with expressing gratitude for its press cadre, with the first ones, who participated in its establishment and those that followed them, including the Lady and Gentlemen Colleagues, telling them: 'We wish you and Aswat al-Iraq every goodness and progress."
EDITORIAL BOARD