CitJo, the first Middle East based citizen journalism portal which connects citizen journalists with media agencies worldwide, officially launched yesterday, April 10. The website provides an innovative local news source in addition to allowing citizen journalists to sell their photos and videos.

How It Works

Citizen Journalists, freelance journalists, activists and other contributors upload their photos and videos and set the price at which news agencies can purchase them; they can also connect their twitter account to index and sell photos or videos uploaded to the micro blogging service using the hashtag #CitJo.

Additionally, contributors can choose to share their citizen journalism photos or videos using a Creative Commons license or share for viewing only using the “All Rights Reserved” license.

As top 20 finalists in the Google Ebda2 competition, the founders, Mahamad El Tanahy & Sarah Wali, are looking to change the news cycle using social media.

“Our aim is to provide an easy way for citizen journalists to get their word out and generate revenue. We’re looking to provide all the features necessary to make citizen journalists’ lives easier, starting with a migration of the service to Arabic, launching an online payment service, and much more to come.” - Mahamad El Tanahy, Managing Director of CitJo.