The Press Institute Of India

Press Institute of India

Founded in 1963, the Press Institute of India is an independent, non-profit trust, established to create and sustain the high and responsible standards of journalism required by a developing country committed to democratic functioning.

For many years the PII was the nodal agency for sending journalists -- reporters, sub- editors and even photographers -- for training to the Thomson Foundation, UK. Now PII's training workshops for journalists are conducted in-house or in cities and rural areas of India. There is a strong focus on rural reporting, development writing and writing on women's empowerment through the panchayats. Over the years the PII has trained over 4,000 professionals editorial and management from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other parts of Asia.

Institutional Profile

The first of its kind in Asia, the Press Institute of India (PII) is an independent non-profit society founded in 1963. It was established to create and sustain high and responsible standards of journalism required by a developing country committed to democratic functioning.

Over the decades, PII has organised and supervised a wide range of media training courses and workshops designed to improve professional journalistic and management skills at all levels. It has trained over 4000 professionals - editorial and management - from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other parts of Asia.

PII is currently giving priority to promoting human development journalism, with emphasis on the panchayat movement, rural reporting, education, biotechnology, economics issues and women’s empowerment. This is to encourage coverage of vital issues affecting the lives of the majority of our people, neglected by the mass media.

Publications:

Grassroots is a monthly journal published in Hindi and English to disseminate and promote reportage on the human condition. A Tamil edition commenced in March 2005. Grassroots contains a wide range of articles commissioned by PII, and some reprinted from newspapers.

PII continues to publish Vidura, a professional quarterly on current issues concerning the press, in both English and Hindi. It has recently been revamped and is India’s most authoritative media journal.

Training and other activities:

The Press Institute has long-standing media-related collaborations with organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Press Foundation of Asia and the Ford Foundation.

Other notable collaborators have been the British Council, Thomson Foundation, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Oxfam (GB), Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, International Council for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, and International Red Cross.

As PII refocuses on training in technical and subject skills, workshops in Biotechnology are being conducted with the Department of Science and Technology, and Economics Education with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and Indian Liberal Group. Training projects with the World Bank are also projected. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung also entrusted PII with the task of documenting an Asia Media Directory.

PII has actively supported the ‘Right to Information’ campaign’ started by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan by bringing out a publication called ‘Transparency’. Subsequently its leader, Aruna Roy, won the Ramon Magasaysay Award, culminating in the enactment of a law on ‘Freedom of Journalism’