THE TRUTH WE TELL

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.