HLT/TPI Office Brochure

The Tibet Post Internationalwww.thetibetpost.com

E-mail: editor@thetibetpost.comTelephone: +91-988-242-3566

The Tibet Post International is an official partnerof Reporters Without Borders

About UsThe Tibet Post International (TPI) is an independentonline newspaper which provides uncensored newson the developing political, cultural and religioussituations in Tibet and within the Tibetan diasporain exile.It is the only tri-lingual Tibetan news service,publishing all articles in Tibetan, English andsimplified Chinese.TPI is based in Dharamsala, northern India – thehome of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and theTibetan Parliament-in-exile - and is an accreditedpartner of Reporters Without Borders(www.rsf.org).

Our Mission

TPI’s mission is to advocate for human rights,

freedom of speech, democracy, peace, justice,

political pluralism and rule of law in Tibetan society,

and to give voice to the people of the three Tibetan

provinces of Dhotoe, Dhomey and U-Tsang. It also

aims to help Tibetans at home and abroad maintain

their cultural and religious values and traditions.

Our main target readership is Tibetan and Chinese

people living in Tibet, China and in exile. We also

reach a wide international audience.

Press Censorship in Tibet and China Our Coverage

TPI’s plays a vital role in supplying uncensored

information to Tibetan and Chinese people living

under the rule of the People’s Republic of China

(PRC).

Chinese citizens remain largely ill-informed about

the Tibetan situation due to the PRC’s restrictions on

and censorship of the press. Reporters Without

Borders currently ranks China 174th out of 179

countries in its Press Freedom Index, and lists it as a

prominent “internet enemy”.

China restricts information in Tibet by:

• Limiting travel and reportage of foreign

correspondents and human rights reporters.

• Maintaining absolute control over all media

within China.

• Maintaining control of the internet through a

sophisticated censorship firewall known as the

Golden Shield Project.

• Punishing informants and dissidents as a

deterrent, frequently in violation of

international law.

During its four years of publication, TPI has covered majordevelopments in Tibet-related issues including:

• Human rights abuses inside Tibet, such as the Chineseauthorities’ ongoing crackdown following the Tibetanuprising in March 2008, which has included police violence,house-to-house raids, arrests, failure to follow judicialprocedure, imprisonments and compulsory ‘patriotic re-education’ programmes.

• The wave of self-immolations of Tibetans, mainly in easternTibet, in protest against the Chinese authorities’ harsh regimeand refusal to allow His Holiness the Dalai Lama to returnto Tibet.

• Persecution of Tibetan writers, journalists, academics andactivists inside Tibet and China.

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings and activities, andthe devolution of his political leadership.

• Developments in Tibetan democracy in India, Bhutan andNepal, and the Central Tibetan Administration’s ongoingattempts to establish a meaningful dialogue with the PRC.

• Social, religious and cultural activities of Tibetans living inexile.

• Developments in international engagement with the Tibetissue.

Press Censorship in Tibet and China

Readership Our FutureTPI is the most widely read Tibetan news website. Wehope to continue our operations indefinitely, and also aimto play a wider role in the development of Tibetanjournalism. The Tibetan media in India, Bhutan andNepal currently face problems around internet access forthe Tibetan public, quality of journalism training,collaboration between Indian and Tibetan journalists, andrepresentation of women in the workforce.

As of April 2012, TPI’s website has received over 14

million visits, with nearly 11 million pages views in 2011

alone. Google Analytics shows that, in 2011, TPI had

readers from 117 Tibetan and Chinese cities, including

Beijing, Lhasa, Shanghai, Chengdu and Urumqi. The

majority of TPI’s readers from Tibet and China access

the site via proxy servers outside of Tibet and mainland

China.

In August 2010, TPI was accredited as a news source by

Google News, and its articles can be consistently found

in Tibet-related Google News searches.

TPI also acts as an unofficial news agency, supplying

other Tibet-related news websites with articles and

photographs free of charge.

News Contributions

We are always happy to receive news of Tibet-

related developments around the world. If you have

a story, article, interview, review, photo, or news of

an event which you think would be suitable for TPI,

please e-mail us at editor@thetibetpost.com.

We also regularly welcome volunteer contributors to

our office in Dharamsala, and have worked with

over 50 international volunteers and interns in the

past four years.

Our FutureTPI plans to address these issues by initiating a three-year project, with the following objectives:

• To launch a fortnightly print journal, to bedistributed across India, Bhutan and Nepal, andto be available to every Tibetan individual,NGO, and religious, educational and socialinstitution.

• To launch a journalism education project, inassociation with the Tibetan Women’s Association(www.Tibetanwomen.org), to include a schoolsoutreach programme, quarterly journalism trainingworkshops for Tibetan students and mediaprofessionals, public forums, internships for Indianand Tibetan students, and student scholarships.

Supports UsTPI is a not-for-profit organisation, run under the auspices

of the Himalayan Literacy Trust

(www.himalayanliteracytrust.org). At present it operates

on a budget of less than EUR 8,000 per year, has two paid

staff journalists, with all other permanent staff, including

its Project Manager and Managing Editor, working on a

voluntary basis.

TPI urgently needs funding to maintain its operations and

implement its development plans. If you would like to

contribute, as an individual or an organisation, please

contact us at editor@thetibetpost.com. We will be happy

to supply you with further details of our operations, and

discuss possibilities for one-off donations, ongoing

granting and sponsorship of specific parts of our projects.

The Tibet Post International operates under the auspices of the Himalayan

Literacy Trust, registered under Act XXI of 1860, the Himachal Pradesh

Government of India (Reg. No: 235/2010).

Our Sister WebsitesTPI has three mono-lingual sister websites –

www.shambalapost.com, www.potalapost.com and

www.outlooktibet.com – which publish longer and more

detailed articles in Tibetan, English and simplified

Chinese. The Shambala Post also hosts a blog page, with

over 300 active bloggers.