Saluting the torchbearers for free speech

Eminent citizens, media personalities, journalists, leading businesspeople, top civil servants, politicians, advertisers of The Daily Star and a host of well-wishers gather at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in the city yesterday to celebrate the newspaper's 32nd founding anniversary and to honour 12 eminent champions of freedom of thought: jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, cartoonist Rafiqun Nabi, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Prof Rehman Sobhan, Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury, writer and researcher Jatin Sarker, writer and political activist Badruddin Umar, Language Movement veteran Ahmed Rafiq, human rights activist Hameeda Hossain, artist Mustafa Monowar, educationist Sharifa Khatun and women rights champion Noorjahan Bose.

Photo: Star