Remembering our Founder Editor
ON his 86th birth anniversary today, we remember S. M. Ali, our Founder Editor and an icon of English journalism in our country, with deep deference and gratitude. He was a journalist by choice. At a time when less meritorious students than him chose more lucrative careers he chose to be a scribe out of a sheer penchant to serve the nation through his writings, an endowment that was a gift of Providence to a most worthy one.
S M Ali was perhaps the first journalist of erstwhile Pakistan and Bangladesh to have made his mark in international journalism. Having started as a young reporter in the then Pakistan Observer, a leading English daily of the time, in the early fifties, he served in various East Asian newspapers from the early 60s. He was the managing editor of Bangkok Post from 1966 to 1970 where he stood out as a journalist of high repute. He next served in The New Nation of Singapore as roving foreign editor and The Hong Kong Standard as its managing editor.
He played an active role in attracting international support for our Liberation War
It was in January 1991 that he embarked on what was perhaps his most important venture -- The Daily Star. The paper was the result of his passion for quality journalism and quality newspaper.
We recall fondly the selfless dedication that he exhibited in rearing a new born daily just as a doting mother would a new born child. It was his amiable disposition, his smiling face and his ability to cross the barrier of age that enabled him to transmit his sense of value to his junior colleagues, and which they carry to this day
On this day, while we remember our Founder Editor, we pledge ourselves to uphold the principles of fearless and objective journalism that he had set for us.
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