47 Facts About Mahfuz Anam

Mahfuz Anam is a leading Bangladeshi journalist and public intellectual.

Mahfuz Anam is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star, which is the largest English newspaper in the country.

Mahfuz Anam was elected chairman of the Asia News Network in 2007,2022 and 2023.

Mahfuz Anam is the founder of the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh.

Mahfuz Anam was born in 1950 in East Bengal, Dominion of Pakistan.

Mahfuz Anam is the youngest son of Abul Mansur Ahmed, a lawyer, writer and politician who worked for the emancipation of Bengali Muslims.

Mahfuz Anam studied economics in the University of Dhaka, where one of his teachers was Rehman Sobhan.

Mahfuz Anam won the All Pakistan Debating Championship for three consecutive years in 1967,1968 and 1969.

In 1971, Mahfuz Anam campaigned for the independence of East Pakistan.

Mahfuz Anam joined the Mukti Bahini in the final months of the Bangladesh War of Independence.

Mahfuz Anam worked as a staff correspondent of The Bangladesh Observer, the country's main English-language daily at the time.

Mahfuz Anam later served as assistant editor of The Bangladesh Times.

Mahfuz Anam was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Fellowship in Journalism in 1976 by the East-West Center.

Between 1977 and 1990, Mahfuz Anam worked for UNESCO as a media officer and spokesman.

Mahfuz Anam was posted in Paris, New York City and Bangkok.

Mahfuz Anam worked closely with Syed Fahim Munaim, who was the newspaper's Managing Editor and responsible for revenue matters.

Mahfuz Anam is the founding president of the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh.

Mahfuz Anam served as Secretary-General of the Editors Council of Bangladesh.

Mahfuz Anam was elected chairman of the Asia News Network in Seoul in 2007.

Mahfuz Anam is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bangladeshi chapter of Transparency International.

Mahfuz Anam worked with the Ford Foundation and Professor Rehman Sobhan to establish the Bangladesh Freedom Foundation.

Mahfuz Anam became a fierce critic of both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia on issues like parliament boycotts, corruption and human rights abuses.

Mahfuz Anam challenged the prevailing censorship at the time surrounding Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Mahfuz Anam was co-accused with Matiur Rahman, editor of the Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo.

Mahfuz Anam was found to be in contempt of court for reporting that a recently appointed judge had falsified his academic credentials; the court action had been filed by the judge's father.

Mahfuz Anam's was quite a clever ploy and very original.

Mahfuz Anam's article was written amid fears of a direct military takeover in Bangladesh; the army chief later ruled out any possibility of grabbing power.

Mahfuz Anam is traditionally seen as a defender of the values of democracy which inspired Bangladesh's independence movement.

Mahfuz Anam was involved in creating a citizens' platform with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Mahfuz Anam criticized the Awami League for fascism after the fall of Sheikh Hasina.

Mahfuz Anam described his newspaper's policy in resisting Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian drift, stating:.

Mahfuz Anam protested the closure of a pro-opposition newspaper in 2010 by referring to Voltaire.

In 2021, Mahfuz Anam took a neutral stand over the controversy surrounding the Al Jazeera documentary All the Prime Minister's Men.

Mahfuz Anam called it "not a top-class work of investigative journalism".

Mahfuz Anam wrote a column openly addressed to army chief General Aziz Ahmed.

Mahfuz Anam blasted General Ahmed who suggested that criticizing the army chief was tantamount to criticizing the Prime Minister.

Mahfuz Anam described the situation as a defeat for the United States.

In spite of Hasina accusing Mahfuz Anam of colluding with the World Bank to stop the Padma Bridge project, Mahfuz Anam called the completion of the bridge's construction Sheikh Hasina's "finest hour".

Mahfuz Anam's newspaper had to work within the confines of censorship during Sheikh Hasina's premiership, including under draconian legislation like the Digital Security Act and Cyber Security Act.

Mahfuz Anam interviewed Yunus in November 2024 during which Yunus remarked "We are only facilitators, not rulers".

In 2016, speaking at a panel discussion on ATN News, Mahfuz Anam conceded that reports published in The Daily Star in 2007 alleging corruption by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were based on uncorroborated leaks fed by the military's Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.

Mahfuz Anam's newspaper has been criticized for potential defamation of Khaleda Zia's son and BNP leader Tarique Rahman who was accused, convicted and acquitted in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack case.

Mahfuz Anam is criticized for failing to predict Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian leadership of Bangladesh before she became prime minister in 2009, when Mahfuz Anam criticized Hasina's arrest by the military-backed caretaker government in 2007.

Mahfuz Anam himself has noted a common perception that his newspaper is partisan towards the Awami League, which he claims is false.

Critics argue that in 2007 when the military was trying to expel Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia from politics, Mahfuz Anam came to Hasina's defense.

Mahfuz Anam has been accused of perpetuating status quo politics between the Awami League and BNP.

Mahfuz Anam's eldest daughter Tahmima Mahfuz Anam is a Bangladeshi English-language novelist and a recipient of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.