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Background

The history of the SLPI goes back to 1998, when the Free Media Movement (FMM), The Editor’s Guild of Sri Lanka and the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka signed a historic document called ‘The Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility’ following an international media conference held in Colombo in April 1998. The Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) – the largest gathering of journalists in the country – took part in the conference, but did not sign the Declaration at that occasion. (The SLWJA became a signatory to the Declaration in December 2007).

The Declaration was the starting point of a close cooperation between the three organizations, which in itself is a milestone in Sri Lankan media development. Based on the Declaration, the organizations were able to negotiate substantial changes in Sri Lankan media laws, expanding the freedom of expression and the upliftment of the professional standards in Sri Lankan journalism.

The Declaration was also the base on which the organizations built the idea of the SLPI, with the PCCSL and the SLCJ. The concept of the SLPI incorporates all three aspects reflected in the Declaration: training and strengthening professionalism of the media industry; setting standards for professional journalism; and advocacy for reforms so that the media may operate without institutional and other forms of barriers. The SLPI, SLCJ and PCCSL together represent these concepts. While the PCCSL is essentially a self-regulatory body established for furthering media ethics, the SLCJ has been offering one-year diploma courses in journalism and a number of short-term mid-career courses for working journalists since 2004. The SLPI is the management arm of the PCCSL and the SLCJ, as well as the vehicle for advocacy.

With a vision of expanded media freedom, and a more professional and responsible media, the SLPI and the PCCSL were registered in 2003 as non-profit entities under the Companies Act of Sri Lanka. The SLCJ followed suit in 2007. The SLPI receives its core-funding from DANIDA and NORAD.

Milestones of SLPI

October 15, 2003: The PCCSL commenced operations to receive and settle complaints against the print media, creating history as the first self-regulatory body of the press in Asia.

December 8, 2003: The SLPI signs agreements with SIDA and NORAD and enters into a MoU with Fojo as an institutional partner.

January 1, 2004: SLPI establishes itself at its premises at 65/5, Ward Place, Colombo 07 being the first Sri Lankan journalism institute initiated by the media, run by the media, for the media.

May 10, 2004: The first batch of the Diploma course of SLCJ starts. Sri Lankan trainers run the course from day one, on a locally developed curriculum. The course initially offers, Sinhala, Tamil and English medium instruction for print and it is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.

September 20, 2004: The first mid-career course for working journalists is hosted at SLCJ, establishing the college as a local mid-career institute meeting the needs of the industry.

October 1st and 2nd, 2005: The SLCJ sells its first mid-career course to a local media company when the Lake House group uses SLCJ to train its photojournalists.

March 1, 2005: The SLCJ examines its first Diploma batch: All students are offered employment at newspapers.

August 10, 2005: The SLPI wins a tender and enters into a contract with the UNDP to conduct a series of training workshops for regional journalists on how to report the tsunami reconstruction.

September 23, 2005: The SLPI enters an agreement with DANIDA to expand the SLCJ to TV and radio training. This exposes the SLPI into broadcast media leading SLPI to become the one-and-only media development institution in the country that deals with all segments of media in all three languages.

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