PIB working for better journalism

Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB) came in to existence in 1976 with a mandate to provide trainings to the working journalists, to undertake research works on journalism, to published books, articles and periodicals on the issues relating to journalism and emerging issues like gender equality, child marriages, climate change, child labor etc.

As mandated PIB conducts mainly two types of training: one is foundation training and the other is investigative reporting training. Foundation trainings and investigative reporting trainings are held in the PIB campus and some trainings are held in district and upzila head quarters.

The institute is enjoying the status of autonomy under the Ministry of Information. In order to enhance professionalism and to sensitize the contemporary issues PIB also organizes seminars, workshops and symposium involving senior journalists, academicians and civil society members.

PIB has got four departments namely administration, study and training, research and reference, and publication and feature. "We provide trainings to journalists and media professionals working in the country in order to enhance their professional knowledge and skills.

I myself underwent training from here when I was a journalist. The pattern of journalism has changed. The new trend has ushered in. We must continuously train ourselves to keep up that trend. Changes are taken into account; training programs are being suited to the changes. Recently conducted data journalism training is a step towards that change.

It is difficult to undergo training from upazila and as such PIB conducts training programs for the upzila level journalist both at PIB campus and upzila/ district headquarters. We also introduced training programmes on health care, food safety and security, gender issue, climate change and other contemporary issues for journalists working in Dhaka and other parts of the county. 

Apart from the training programmes PIB has introduce some academic programs like Masters programme on journalism, post graduate diploma programme under the affiliation of National University  and online certificate course on journalism.," said Zafar Wazed, Director General of PIB, who is also a renowned poet and journalist.

"In  the election manifesto of 2018,  PIB was focused with regard to enhancing professionalism by way of training the journalists and engaging the journalists in investigating reporting  by means of Right to Information Act and ensuring the safety to journalists and news workers while discharging duties.

PIB is working to this end. In this process, government constituted journalist welfare trust for the journalists during the days of their woes, particularly when they loss job or fell in any accident," Mr. Zafar added. 

 
For the rapid development of mass media and information technology in the country, the government has allocated money to PIB's training sector. The Institute has so far conducted 1294 training courses for 37, 202 journalists across the country It also joined e-learning platform with the assistance of' Access to Information (A2i) of the government. 

The library is used as a resource centre for media personnel and for leisure-time reading of appropriate materials. It is made available to support and enhance learning and understanding and to encourage library users to become independent, life-long learners.

The library of PIB is rich and diverse and consists of over 12,523 books. The archive preserves 25 local and international dailies and 13 magazines. In addition, it also preserve clipping of 165 titles from 9 dailies.

The PIB has publication of books and the publication department has published 145 books till June, 2018 to its credit. The institute brings out 'Nirikkha' quarterly with articles on media developments. PIB has a dormitory for journalists who live outside Dhaka. In memory of late journalist and news caster Sohail Samad, PIB has been presenting the Memorial Prize since 1999.

The Press Institute focuses on quality media in Bangladesh through various training and empowers Bangladeshi journalists and media personnel to the highest level.

The writer is a Sub-editor of Asian Age