Historical Background

To create consciousness among people about health and sanitation District Public Relations Office was established under Public Health Division in British India in 1924. This department started functioning at Writers' Building in Kolkata in the name of Publicity Department under the supervision of the then Information Department. After partition of 1947 Public Relation Directorate was created with the combination of Field Publicity and News and Film Section under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the then government of Pakistan. A new section was also opened in the name of Folksong section. Renowned personalities of literature and music era viz. Poet Jasim Uddin , singer Abbasuddin, Abdul Alim, Sohrab Hossain, Abdul Latif, Bederuddin worked in this department .

In 1968 network of Public Relations Department was expanded and a post of District Public Relation Officer (DPRO) and a Sub-Divisional Public Relation Officer (SDPRO) were created for every district and sub-division respectively. Considering the importance of motivating people of grass root level and implicate them in development activities, the goverment of Bangladesh under the leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman established the department of Mass Communication combining public relation departments Bangladesh Council and women section of Board of National Reconstruction. Through reconstruction of Department of Mass Communication in post liberation Bangladesh the important responsibility to establish a bridge of bondage between government and people has been vested upon this department since it's inception. With a view to integrate people with government policies and development programmes, District Information Offices have been conducting various meetings, seminars, discussion meetings and documentary film shows. At present multifarious publicity activities like drama, cultural function, press meeting, children's fair, community meeting, open space meeting path publicity, courtyard meeting, distribution of booklets etc. have been added to existing programmes.

On the backdrop of transforming former sub-divisions into districts Department of Mass Communication has been reorganized and Sub-Divisional Public Relation Offices have been converted to District Information Offices. Currently publicity and motivational activities of this department are being conducted through 64 District Information Offices and 4 Upazilla Information Offices.