National papers still have an appetite for agency copy from Iraq, according to Kent News and Pictures, which has just sent its second reporting team to the country.
KNP was the first independent British news agency to send staff to Iraq four months ago. But following the bombing of the UN headquarters in the country, reporter Grant Hodgson and photographer Phil Toscano returned to the UK.
Hodgson was the only British journalist to cover the UN bombing and his first-person account was widely syndicated throughout the national press.
Next week, Toscano will return to Iraq with reporter David Cox.
KNP news editor Barry Rabbetts said: “We came back after the UN bomb blast. We thought we should analyse the situation and see how safe it was. We also thought it was fair to give Phil and Grant a chance to come back after working there every day for more than three months.
“Stories from Iraq are still making the papers almost every day. All the time Saddam’s still at large there’s an air of ‘what’s going to happen next?’. “And all the time British troops are in Basra and things are going on in Baghdad, newsdesks are going to want it,” he added.
By Dominic Ponsford
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