Prothom Alo at 24 years: Readers are our inspiration
Prothom Alo started its journey on 4 November 1998 with the solid conviction of independent and authentic journalism. Our journey in the last two decades has not been easy. Prothom Alo had to face numerous challenges from the beginning.
Bangladeshi politics has always been highly divided, unstable, uncertain and tumultuous. When in the opposition, those who are vocal for democracy and freedom of the media often forget it when they take the reins.
The absence of the minimum working relationship between the government and the opposition party which is required to run a democratic state is constantly witnessed.
It is a painful that even after 51 years of independence, we have not been able to put democracy on a solid foundation. State institutions are getting weaker and weaker. The political parties could not come to a consensus on how the elections will be held. Moreover, governments in the past have been eager to block free and independent journalism by issuing one law after another. Despite the apparent differences between the political parties, there is surprising similarity among them. This is a big challenge for independent journalism.
The second challenge for the media is regarding technology. When Prothom Alo started its journey, print media played a major role. Later, with the technological development, the online medium came to the fore. Currently, people get various types of information on social media, but there remain questions about its objectivity. In many cases rumours are spread in the name of information.
Therefore, those information have not become substitute for printed newspapers and mainstream online news portals. Rather, Prothom Alo has been able to gain the trust of more readers by using these social media.
The challenges faced by independent and responsible journalism at the beginning of Prothom Alo is still relevant. Not only that, some additional challenges have also been added, among which the Digital Security Act is particularly noteworthy. More recently, the cabinet approved in principle the draft of the Press Council Act and the initiative to enact OTT regulations and data protection laws, are also indirect threats to the freedom of the press.
Despite all these limitations, Prothom Alo is steadfast in the principles of honest, objective and responsible journalism, and will continue to be in the days ahead. On the principles of democracy, rule of law, social equality and justice and non-communalism, Prothom Alo will move forward with the spirit of our Liberation War in its heart. On the 24th anniversary we are happy to announce that the daily readership of Prothom Alo print edition is around 5 million. Prothom Alo is now the top Bengali news media in the world with 15 million online users and 250 million pageviews.
Prothom Alo enlightens the public about corruption, abuse of power, terrorism, militancy and negative political activities in order to establish good governance and also brings to the attention of the reader all the good initiatives and activities at individual and group level. This effort will continue to build a tolerant, democratic, rational and science-minded society.
Prothom Alo's birthday is also the birthday of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Prothom Alo has been constantly fighting for freedom of expression as stated in the constitution. For that reason Prothom Alo as a newspaper and its journalists had to suffer various harassments time and again.
However, we are steady in our position and will remain so. Countless readers are our inspiration in this fight for free journalism.
We sincerely thank and wish all the readers, writers, advertisers, distributors, hawkers of Prothom Alo on this anniversary.