After months of planning, weeks of dummy runs, the paper was finally
rolling out of the press on the night of 13th January, 1991. I was tense
with suppressed excitement, heart beating fast, hands sweating, one
held firmly by my wife Shaheen, who said “I am so happy your dream is
coming true”.
A quarter of a century ago, seven of us got together, led by one
famous journalist Mr SM Ali and followed by one eager young man (yours
truly), along with five visionary entrepreneurs - AS Mahmud, Azimur
Rahman, A Rouf Chowdhury, Latifur Rahman and Shamsur Rahman- to decide
to bring out a newspaper. I express my profound respect to the memory of
those whom we lost along the way of our 25-year-long journey : Founding
editor SM ALI, founding managing director AS Mahmud, founding chair
Azimur Rahman and founding managing editor Tawfiq Aziz Khan. They gave
us a brilliant start which has helped us achieve whatever modest success
that we have had so far.
It was, no doubt, an unlikely group. None of our investors had
anything ever to do with media. The reason we were tempted was not so
much by the prospect of a money making media industry - for back then it
was still on shaky ground - but by a burning desire to contribute to
the growth of Bangladesh, just released from the shackles of autocracy.
We dreamt of strengthening fundamental freedoms, serving the nation and
upholding the values of our Liberation War, especially that of democracy
and secularism.
We felt the need to modernise our society and the tool we chose was
journalism. The path we picked was telling the truth – objectively,
accurately and in its full breath. We wanted to become the purveyor of
good taste, decency and tolerance. We wanted to reestablish our sense of
pride, not through false narratives but with achievements in every
aspect of our life.
It was a crucial time when we started our journey because Bangladesh
had just come out of a long spell of dictatorship and democracy and was
beginning to stretch its wings. We knew that strong, independent and
robust journalism, was a precondition for a healthy democracy; and felt,
that creating an INDEPENDENT VOICE in the form of a newspaper that
would speak freely and boldly, was the best way we could serve the
nation at that crucial juncture. We knew that there was so much of
hunger, poverty and corruption to write about. We realised that the
voice of the poor and the powerless, muted by the roar of the powerful,
remained unheard and needed to be listened to and brought into the
public domain as well as into policy debates.
We felt that howsoever the society may be divided, there was an
urgent need to converge on crucial issues of politics, economy,
industry, education, health, environment and good governance. We were
fully conscious that the fractious nature of the existing society
required a healing process which a non-partisan and independent
newspaper could be a catalyst for. This, we thought, could be done by
acting as a bridge between differing social groups, contending
stakeholders and contesting political parties.
And we knew that outside the realm of policymaking process, meaning
without being a part of the political process, journalism was the best
profession to influence the realisation of the above tasks.
For the last twenty five years, we have been unflagging in supporting
the cause for a free press no matter how difficult the challenges have
been, because we believe that a free and independent press is a
fundamental prerequisite for a vibrant democracy. Even in the most
trying times, we have repeatedly written that there is no alternative
path to prosperity and equality other than democracy. For that we have
been persecuted and harassed. We have relentlessly argued for a
functioning parliament and criticised political parties for their
practice of parliament boycott and reckless calling of hartals.
The theme we have pursued relentlessly is accountable governance.
Without good governance, without rule of law, without transparency and
accountability, a nation cannot progress. The Daily Star has been at the
forefront to point out these lapses. We have tried to form public
opinion through our discourses, often not confined to the pages of the
newspaper, but in roundtables and dialogues.
We have rejoiced at the prosperity and growth of our country. Our
anniversary supplement's theme “On high road to progress” is just the
latest assertion of this. We have searched out the achievers and doers
in various fields be it science, literature, politics, business,
education or just simple down to earth agriculture and highlighted their
glory to instill a sense of achievement in our national psyche.
We have always tried to serve the public interest beyond any other
concern. We have written how the all powerful are grabbing our rivers,
railway land and breaking the laws. We have stood behind the weak and
the poor in their struggle against the mighty, often the state
machinery. No amount of intimidation could deter us from our mission.
Over the last 25 years ours is a story of service to the Nation, to
democracy, to economic development , to promoting excellence and ethical
values.
It is in the sphere of public recognition for outstanding achievers
in different sectors that The Daily Star can really be said to have made
a significant difference. By awarding our talented students, successful
entrepreneurs, creative artistes, musicians and environmental
campaigners we showcased our excellence and made our people acquire a
new sense of self confidence.
For the last 16 years we have awarded the best and brightest of our
students in the O and A level examinations revealing the comparative
intellectual ability of our young in this international and highly
competitive examination. It greatly helped to generate a new self
confidence among our students by this public exposure of their abilities
which had not happened before the advent of The Daily Star.
Our Bangladesh Business Award truly exposed the innovative and
entrepreneurial excellence of our business community and gave them that
crucial boost that they needed to achieve higher levels of performance.
It was a natural offshoot of our deep commitment to business journalism
which The Daily Star was a pioneer in.
Our “Celebrating Life” Awards for the lyricist, photographers and
film producers and the subsequent production of CDs of the best lyrics,
exhibition of the best photographs and financial support for film
production have helped to galvanize these creative fields.
Our initiative for “Climate” and “Junior Climate Awards” was in
keeping with the needs of time and most appropriate for Bangladesh.
I would like to conclude with the challenges that we are likely to face, the foremost of which being the coming Digital Age.
Information technology will change everything as we know-some of it
will be devastating for those who will resist change but for those
prepared for change it will open up new and magnificent avenues for the
growth of journalism. Newspapers will be read more on its digital
platforms which will release us from the confines of limited space,
newsprint supply and price, challenges of quality printing and
distribution hassles. This will lead to huge cost savings which wise
publishers and editors will spend on developing human resources and
technology.
The most important point to ponder is that flooded with numerous news
channels and sources, readers will converge to ones that are authentic,
credible and ethical. We believe, that in this new world created by
technology, the core values of journalism will resurface. Thus
journalism, real, ethical and value based, will reassert itself-creating
to, I predict, a return to centre stage, ethical journalism.
In conclusion, we say without hesitation, that we will continue to
stay on course of objective journalism, making The Daily Star a stronger
and louder Independent Voice, in every sense.
Bangladesh is on the verge of a development spurt driven by new
energy of the young, new confidence of our entrepreneurs, new success of
our NGOs, new vision of our leaders.
With the noble profession of journalism as our full time duty, we, my
colleagues and myself, pledge before you, that The Daily Star will
remain committed to democracy, fundamental freedoms, especially media
freedom, secularism, equitable development and work towards a knowledge
based society and do so with the highest degree of honesty, integrity
and dedication to ethical journalism.
I conclude with a saying of Thomas Jefferson: “Were it left to me to
decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or
newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to
prefer the latter.” Ours is not to ask you to make such a choice but to
appreciate the fundamental role that media plays in a healthy flowering
of a free society.
Thank you.
The writer is Editor & Publisher of The Daily Star.