Linked with Ramesh Jaura – India & Germany.
IPS Europe: (is) … a network of correspondents and stringers in Europe, the Middle East and Maghreb covers the Euro-Mediterranean region. The journalistic and administrative co-ordination is conducted from Berlin in Germany where the European regional centre IPS EUROPA | IPS EUROPE is based.. Most of the copy is edited in London where the regional editor is located. In case of need Berlin jumps in. Some of the hotspots of IPS coverage from the region are: Brussels, Berlin, Bonn, Geneva, London, Paris, Rome, Belgrade, Moscow, Prague, Vienna, Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem and Ramallah.
The overall IPS mission, according to the statutes of the International Association, is the following:
- « The Association – which intends to inherit the goals of the former cooperative of journalists « IPS- Inter Press Service » and to carry forward its ideals – shall be a public-benefit organisation for development cooperation. Its main object shall be to contribute to development by promoting free communication and a professional flow of information to reinforce technical and economic co-operation among developing countries;
- … its purpose to support the production and dissemination of information on national and international realities with particular regard to the developing countries. » – Articles 4 and 5;
- Inter Press Service (IPS) was set up in 1964 as a non-profit international cooperative of journalists. Its founders were Roberto Savio, an Italian freelance journalist, and Pablo Piacentini, an Argentinean political scientist who was then a student in Rome. Savio served as Director General of IPS until 1999 and is now the agency’s president emeritus. Piacentini served the organisation in various capacities and is currently editor of the columnist service;
- In its early days, the primary objective of IPS was to fill the information gap between Europe and Latin America after the political turbulence following the Cuban revolution of 1959. The agency’s network grew steadily and expanded to include Asia and Africa. The objectives broadened – to cover news from the « Third World », give a voice to the voiceless, promote information on development issues, and help create a better balance and flow of international news;
- In 1994, in order to strengthen its non-profit identity, IPS changed its legal status to that of a ‘public-benefit organisation for development cooperation’, open to journalists, professional communicators and bodies active in the fields of information and communication.