Jatiya Press Club is the professional club for journalists of Bangladesh located in the capital
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...
. The current president is
Farida Yasmin and the General Secretary is
Elias Khan.
History
![Bangladesh National Press Club](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Bangladesh_National_Press_Club.jpg)
The Jatiya Press Club was founded in 1954 as the East Pakistan Press Club. It was formed to be run by an elected committee guided by its rules and regulations. The Government of East Pakistan rented out a building at 18 Topkhana Road at a monthly rent of Tk 100 to be used as the press club headquarters. The building before 1947 was a residential house of
Dhaka University and was once residence to physicist
Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose (; 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was a Bengali mathematician and physicist specializing in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for ...
.
The first life member of the club was N. M. Khan who was chief secretary of the provincial government.
Mujibur Rahman Khan
Mujibur Rahman Khan (23 October 1910 – 5 October 1984) was a Bangladeshi journalist, litterateur and politician.
Education and career
Khan passed the Entrance examination from Anjuman High School in 1928 and Bachelor of Arts in 1934 from Ana ...
was the first president of the club. On 25 March Pakistan army started
Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight was the codename for a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the opera ...
and shelled the club, the structure was completely destroyed. After the Independence of Bangladesh it was named the National Press club. In 1977 the building was leased to the club permanently and the government of Bangladesh covered the expense of a new building. In 1995 the club's logo and emblem were selected.
Structure
The Jatiya Press Club has three of membership, first is life membership, second is permanent membership for professional journalists and the third is associate membership for public relations personnel. Associate members do not get voting rights. The National Press club currently has about 800 members.
The press club is managed by a 17-member executive council. From 2018 to 2020,
Saiful Alam was the President and the general secretary was
Farida Yasmin.
References
{{Authority control
1954 establishments in East Pakistan
Clubs and societies in Bangladesh
Press clubs
Organisations based in Dhaka
Bangladeshi journalism organisations