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Yahoo now goes to war

Duncan Campbell

Internet portal has hired a war correspondent

LONDON: "One man. A World of Conflict." That is how the Internet portal Yahoo! is announcing its move into the world of war reporting. Hiring one of the world's best-known war correspondents is seen as a move by Yahoo! to widen its horizons and challenge traditional media companies.

Kevin Sites, the American cameraman who became well-known for filming the shooting by a U.S. soldier of an apparently unarmed civilian in a Falluja mosque, is the man Yahoo! has hired. His job is to report solo from every "hot zone" in the world over the coming year.

Yahoo! announced the signing as part of its effort to provide "reporting for the new millennium." His style is described as "backpack journalism — narrative storytelling techniques" for the Internet. Mr. Sites, 42, will visit every place listed by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London as a site of armed conflict. The criterion will be that a conflict has been active for three months. The IISS lists about 50 sites but some of these (Peru, Mexico, Greece) are "dormant". The plan is for Mr. Sites to operate alone, using translators, drivers and minders when he needs them. He will have three small video cameras, one of which has been adapted so that it can be worn on a headband like a miner's lamp. A "mission control" team will be based in the U.S.

Mr. Sites started work as a 15-year-old photographer — he lied about his age — on the Geneva Free Press in Ohio and is now based in California. He is one of a breed of solo journalists, or "sojos", who offer services to established outfits. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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