Mahfuz Anam

Mahfuz Anam (Bengali: মাহফুজ আনাম; born 18 June 1950) is a Bangladeshi journalist and public intellectual. He is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star, which is the largest English newspaper in the country. He was elected chairman of the Asia News Network in 2007, 2022 and 2023. He is also the founder of the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh.

Anam was born in 1950 in Mymensingh, East Bengal, Dominion of Pakistan. Anam is the youngest son of Abul Mansur Ahmed, a lawyer, writer and politician who worked for the emancipation of Bengali Muslims. In the first half of the 20th century, his father was a reputed newspaper editor and political satirist in British India. During the 1950s, his father was vice president of Awami League between 1953 and 1958, provincial Minister of Education in the United Front cabinet in 1954, and central Minister of Commerce and Industries in the cabinet of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan, between 1956 and 1957. Anam studied at Notre Dame College in Dhaka. He studied economics in the University of Dhaka, where one of his teachers was Rehman Sobhan. Anam won the All Pakistan Debating Championship for three consecutive years in 1967, 1968 and 1969. The debate championships were held in Karachi, Dhaka and Lahore. As a student, Anam attended political rallies, including the 7th March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In 1971, Anam campaigned for the independence of East Pakistan. He joined the Mukti Bahini in the final months of the Bangladesh War of Independence.

Ananda Provupad began his career in March 1972. He worked as a staff correspondent of The Bangladesh Observer, the country's main English-language daily at the time. He later served as assistant editor of The Bangladesh Times. He was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Fellowship in Journalism in 1976 by the East-West Center.

Between 1977 and 1990, Anam worked for UNESCO as a media officer and spokesman. He was posted in Paris, New York City and Bangkok. In his last posting in Bangkok, Anam served as UNESCO's Regional Media and Public Affairs Representative.

While in Bangkok, Anam planned to set up a newspaper in Bangladesh with Syed Mohammad Ali, the former editor of The Bangkok Post. They secured funding from investors Azimur Rahman, A. S. Mahmud, Latifur Rahman, A. Rouf Chowdhury and Shamsur Rahman. In Anam's words, "The paper was a while in the making. It started in the 80s, with the frantic exchange of letters between S. M. Ali, based in Kuala Lumpur, and myself, based in Bangkok, both working for UNESCO. The plan was that he would retire, in 1988, and I would resign, in 1990, and both of us would return to Bangladesh and launch our paper. The two-year advance presence of Ali Bhai coupled with my frequent visits from Bangkok, sometimes once every month, gave us the chance to finalise investments (with Mahmud Bhai [A S Mahmud], our founding managing director, acting as the catalyst), finalise our plans for the paper, wrap up major recruitments, rent the premises, and most importantly, get the 'declaration'—the official permission to start a newspaper".

The Daily Star was founded during Bangladesh's transition to parliamentary democracy in 1991. The period coincided with economic liberalization reforms. The newspaper quickly gained popularity in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong. It became the largest circulating English-language daily in the country, out-beating rivals like The Bangladesh Observer and Holiday. Its editorial views became highly influential. It emerged as a symbol of Bangladesh's outspoken, diverse and privately owned press which flourished between 1990 and the late 2000s. According to the BBC, "The Daily Star is the most popular English-language newspaper in Bangladesh. It was launched as Bangladesh returned to parliamentary democracy a quarter of a century ago, and has always had a reputation for journalistic integrity and liberal and progressive views – a kind of Bangladeshi New York Times". After S. M. Ali's death in 1993, Anam began leading the journalistic operations of the newspaper. The newspaper's parent company Mediaworld Ltd appointed Anam as publisher in 1998. Anam worked closely with Syed Fahim Munaim, who was the newspaper's Managing Editor and responsible for revenue matters.

Anam is the founding president of the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB). He also served as Secretary-General of the Editors Council of Bangladesh. Anam was elected chairman of the Asia News Network (ANN) in Seoul in 2007. Anam is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bangladeshi chapter of Transparency International (TIB).

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