Malaysian Press Institute or popularly known as MPI, was instituted as a foundation on 13th of April 2007 under the Malaysia’s Company Act of 1965. Prior to that it was known as Institut Akhbar Malaysia (IAM), a non governmental organisation, registered under the National Society’s Act. IAM was established in 1968 by the Malaysian media with the support of the government via the Ministry of Information, mainly to provide basic training in journalism for Malaysian media practitioners as, unlike today, there was no journalism, media or communication school in the country then. It was then known as South East Asia Centre.

In 1980, MPI became the body to recognise the nation’s best to journalism works and products when it launched the Hadiah Kewartawanan Malaysia (HKM) or the Malaysian Journalism Prize, similar to that of the Pulitzer Prize in the United States. The HKM remains as the premier journalism award until today. The prize money of the award, sponsored by PETRONAS, stands at RM300,000 a year.

While it continues to offer short and practical courses, workshops, seminars to local journalist, MPI is also offering academic programmes to its members. In collaboration with University Utara Malaysia (UUM), MPI is now offering the university’s master programme in managerial communication and media management and also diploma in journalism for graduates, whose first degree is not in journalism, media or communication, but who wish to pursue a career in journalism.

Malaysian Press Institute (MPI)