A new web site aims to publish eyewitness accounts from the ground on Iraq should hostilities commence.

Launched 8 February 2003, electronicIraq.net is published by antiwar campaigners Voices in the Wilderness and the Electronic Intifida, a publisher specialising in reference material about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The site aims to tell the humanitarian side of the story in Iraq and will rely on activists in Iraq to submit photographs and written dispatches using a simple, user-friendly web interface.

BBC Online has launched a similar device on its web site, encouraging ordinary people around the world to comment on news stories and to upload images.

It is estimated that there are currently 15,000 to 25,000 Iraqis who have access to the internet.

Meanwhile, the US audience for online news had grown dramatically in recent months. The number of visitors to news sites increased from 67.5 million in January 2002 to 82 million last month - nearly two out of three internet users according to Nielsen/Netratings.

The number of visitors to Google news, which collates headlines from around 4,500 sources around the world, has also increased by nearly 400,000 in four months to 1.4 million.

Sources:
http://electronicIraq.net/
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/
http://electronicIntifada.net/new.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2780295.stm