Showered with good wishes, flowers and cakes from distinguished personalities, readers, patrons, advertisers and well-wishers, the Daily Sun vowed again to nurture impartial journalistic practice and mirror the truth on its 14th anniversary on Thursday.
The popular national English broadsheet arranged a daylong programme at its office in the Bashundhara Residential Area of the capital on the occasion to share the joy of its success and future endeavours where guests appreciated the daily’s firm commitment to educating, motivating and empowering readers and greeted the Sun family with warm wishes.
A galaxy of personalities representing a wide spectrum of citizens, including high dignitaries, foreign diplomats, academicians, businesspersons, senior journalists, artistes, celebrities and civil society members graced the event with their good wishes.
They highly appreciated the newspaper for its commitment to impartial journalism.
Addressing the programme as the chief guest, Bashundhara Group Vice-Chairman Safwan Sobhan thanked the Daily Sun team for achieving 14 beautiful years of truth and impartiality in delivering news to the nation.
“With this new Bangladesh, with new reforms, our Daily Sun is also going through reform of enhancing our news experience to our readers and digitally being more active towards giving the news to the people at the right time, at the right second, which is required,” he said.
“With this, I am very happy with the team. Everyone is working to make this newspaper even more news-friendly and easy to read for our readers and viewers,” Safwan Sobhan added.
The iconic business leader said the Daily Sun is going to launch a news platform in several languages to enhance the experience of readers and sought cooperation from the foreign diplomats in this regard.
High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, Dharmapala Weerakkody, greeted the Daily Sun on its anniversary of publication.
He said, “On behalf of the government of Sri Lanka, I am conveying best wishes for the Daily Sun. We are really inspired by the journey of the Daily Sun in the last 14 years as we know it is a responsible and valued media institution in Bangladesh.”
Congratulating the Daily Sun on behalf of the people of his country, Ambassador of the Philippines, Leo Tito L Ausan Jr, said running a newspaper successfully for 14 years is a big achievement.
“On behalf of the people of the Philippines and the Filipino community in Dhaka, I congratulate the Daily Sun and everyone involved with it for achieving this milestone. I hope its success will continue,” he said.
Chargé d' Affaires of the Embassy of Algeria in Bangladesh, Basma Bentaleb, appreciated the contributions of the Daily Sun and wished the daily very best.
The diplomat said, “I would like to commend the important role played by your newspaper and all media outlets in the process of sensitising and forming public opinion and revealing the facts with complete transparency.”
First Secretary of the High Commission of India Gokul VK, Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco Bouchaib Ez Zahiri and Deputy Ambassador of Nepal Lalita Silwal also wished the Daily Sun.
Senior journalists and media personalities showered the Daily Sun with praises for its positive frame of mind to highlight the country’s achievements apart from appreciating its truth-seeking eyes for bringing out inconsistencies.
Bangladesh Pratidin acting Editor Abu Taher said the leadership quality of an editor plays a crucial role in the advancement of a newspaper.
He said, “An editor is the leader of a newspaper. He knows the way, he goes the way and he shows the way. I believe that the Daily Sun under the leadership of its competent editor will continue to shine and touch the sun making its name worthwhile.”
Jatiya Press Club President and the daily Kaler Kantho Editor Hasan Hafiz congratulated the Daily Sun on the occasion of its 14th founding anniversary.
“I wish the Daily Sun a very prosperous future ahead. At this time of building a new Bangladesh, I expect that the daily will move forward with new wisdom and commitment,” he said.
Banglanews24.com Editor Jewel Mazhar praised the Daily Sun for its positive brand of journalism.
“The Daily Sun stands apart among a very few quality English newspapers of Bangladesh. With its unique features, the daily is taking journalism to new heights. We expect that it will continue to perform like this with its impartiality and quality and reach more close to the people,” he said.
Earlier, sharing the success story of the newspaper’s 14-year journey and greeting the guests, Daily Sun Editor Rezaul Karim Lotus said the growth of the Daily Sun highlights its ability to adapt to the changing media landscape while maintaining its core values.
In his welcome note, the Daily Sun Editor reaffirmed its pledge to uphold the highest standards of journalism with accuracy, impartiality and fairness and expressed gratitude to the readers and patrons for fulfilling the shared goal.
“We stand ready to contribute to the building of a future that honours the sacrifices of the past and embraces the possibilities of tomorrow. A future where truth prevails falsehood, where justice triumphs over injustice and where freedom is balanced by responsibility,” he said.
Terming freedom of the press as the foundation of democracy and justice, Rezaul Karim Lotus thanked Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir and Vice-Chairman Safwan Sobhan for ensuring freedom for the Daily Sun.
He assured that the Daily Sun will strengthen its digital presence by focusing on diversified contents, including videos, in the coming days keeping its attention to the print version unhurt.
Executive Director of the Daily Sun and T Sports Tasvir ul Islam, representative of the Chinese Embassy Li Jian and representative of Xinhua News Agency Sun Nan, Political Counsellor of the Russian Embassy Anton Chernob and Press Attaché Evgenia Konareva, Kaler Kantho Executive Editor Haider Ali and Head of News of News24 television channel Shariful Islam Khan were, among others, present on the occasion.
The Daily Sun, a concern of country’s leading industrial conglomerate Bashundhara Group, started its journey on 24 October 2010 with the commitment to remaining true and impartial in presenting news.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
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