District Media Units have been established in 22 Districts Island wide under the Department of Government Information. They were established on 01 December 1999. Appointment of Information Officers to the initial District Media Unit was done by the then Minister of Mass Media, Mangala Samaraweera.

Initially, only an Information Officer was attached to these District Media Units and later a Project Implementation Assistant recruited under the graduate scheme and a Development Officer were attached with the view of improving efficiency of these District Media Units.

Since then, they have become the centre for collecting development news within the district and such news are forwarded to all media institutions.