PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
India's largest news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI) is a non-profit sharing cooperative owned by the country's newspapers with a mandate to provide efficient and unbiased news to all its subscribers. Founded on 27 August 1947, PTI began functioning from 1 February 1949.
PTI offers its news services in the English and Hindi languages. Bhasha is the Hindi language news service of the agency. PTI subscribers include 500 newspapers in India and a large number abroad. All major TV/Radio channels in India and several abroad, including ВВС in London, receive PTI service.

PTI now has its own satellite delivery system through a transponder on an INSAT satellite for reaching its services directly to subscribers anywhere in the country. Photo service is delivered by satellite as well as accessed by dial-up. PTI is now on the Internet at : http:/www.ptinews.com.

With a staff of over 1,500 including 400 journalists, PTI has over 100 bureaux across the country and foreign correspondents in major cities of the world including Beijing, Berlin, Colombo, Dhaka, Dubai, Islamabad, London, Moscow, New York and Washington. In addition, about 500 stringers contribute to the news file at home while 20 part-time correspondents bring news from the rest of the world.
Besides the news and photo services, the other services of the agency include mailer packages of Feature, Graphics, Science Service, Econ Service and Data India, and screen-based services such as News-scan Stockscan. A television wing, PTI-TV, does features and undertakes corporate documentaries on assignment basis.

PTI has arrangements with the Associated Press and Agence France Presse for distribution of their news in India. AP's photo and international commercial information services are also distributed in India through PTI. PTI is a partner in Asia Pulse International, a Singapore-registered company formed by PTI and five other Asian media organisations to provide an online data bank on economic developments and business opportunities in Asian countries. PTI is also a participant in Asianet, a cooperative arrangement among 12 news agencies of the Asia-Pacific region for distribution of corporate and Government press releases.

PTI is a leading participant in the Pool of News Agencies of the Non-Aligned Countries and the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies. It also has bilateral news exchange arrangements with several news agencies belonging to the countries of Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

UNITED NEWS OF INDIA
United News of India (UNI) was launched on 21 March 1961, and has now grown into one of the largest news agencies in Asia with about 90 bureaux in India and abroad. It has more than 1,000 subscribers in India and abroad, especially in the Gulf States. It has correspondents in all the major cities and towns of India as well as several major world capitals. UNI has collaboration with several foreign news agencies, including Reuters, DPA, IPS, RIA Novosti and United News of Bangladesh. It has more than 320 journalists on its staff and more than 250 stringers.
UNI launched a full-fledged Indian language news service, Univarta, in Hindi in May 1981. A decade later, it launched a wire service in Urdu for the first time in the world.

In 1987, UNI launched a national Photo Service, a pioneering venture. It has collaborated with AFP of France for this service. UNI also supplies computer-designed Graphics in ready-to-use form on economic and other topical subjects every day to newspapers in English and Hindi.

PRESS COUNCIL OF INDIA
The Press Council of India has been established under an Act of Parliament for the purpose of preserving the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India. The Chairman of the Council is by convention, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. The Council has 28 members - 20 from the newspaper world, five are Members of Parliament (three nominated by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and two by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha) and remaining three are nominated by the Sahitya Akademi, the Bar Council of India and the University Grants Commission. The Council is reconstituted every three years. The Council has its own source of revenue in that it collects levy from registered newspapers and news agencies. It also receives grant-in-aid the Central Government for performing its functions.

As an autonomous quasi-judicial body, the aim of the Press Council is to administer ethics and to inculcate principles of self-regulation among the Press. It also keeps under review any development likely to interfere with the freedom of the Press. The Council discharges its functions primarily through adjudications on complaint cases received by it, either against the Press for violation of journalistic ethics or by the Press for interference with its freedom. Where the Council is satisfied during the inquiry that newspaper or a news agency has offended against the standards of journalistic ethics or public taste or that an editor or working journalist has committed any professional misconduct, it may warn, admonish or censure them or approve of their conduct. The Council is also empowered to make such observations as it may think fit in respect of the conduct of any authority, including Government, for interfering with the freedom of the press. The decisions of the Council are final and cannot be questioned in any court of law.

In mid 2000, the process of reconstitution of the Council for its eighth term was initiated. The Council's term was to end on 28 March 2001.
During 2000-2001, the Press Council of India received 1,204 complaints of which 404 were filed by the Press and 800 were against the Press. 800 cases were already pending. Of these the Council adjudicated 515 cases. 867 cases were dismissed by the Council at the preliminary stage for lack of sufficient grounds for inquiry. The Council thus disposed of 1,382 matters during 2000-2001.
Press Council Act, 1978 also empowers the Council suo moto to initiate studies on various matters that have bearing on the freedom of the Press and its standards.

On the National Press Day observed on 16 November 2000, the Press Council organised a seminar on the 'Role of Media preparing people to cope with disasters'. The Council also organised a three-day SAARC Media Conference from 17 to 19 November 2000.