Images taken by amateur photographers could now end up being sold in Agence-France Presse's (AFP) professional network, thanks to a pilot run by citizen journalism platform Citizenside.

Clients of the AFP, which is a stakeholder in the site, will have access to images submitted to the site via its image forum, according to a Journalism.co.uk report.

Matthieu Stefani, vice president of Citizenside, said opening up user-generated content in this way would help promote the value of citizen journalism to media houses.

The AFP's 7,000 partners would be able to buy the citizen images with contributors receiving up to 75 percent of the sale price, Stefani told Journalism.co.uk.

According to the Citizenside Web site, to qualify for a sale, "the documents put online must be of good quality and be linked to news events."

The source of the Citizenside images will be clearly marked as amateur content, added Stefani.

For more information go to Citizenside or Journalism.co.uk.