Platform doesn’t matter for doing journalism - Aharar

From classic newspaper to latest digital – Aharar Hossain has worked for all the platform of journalism. But he did not end up a jack of all trades master of none. He has exhibited the highest excellence everywhere and continuing to doing so.

To him, “Platform doesn’t matter for doing journalism.” 

A senior journalist for BBC Bangla’s online operation, Aharar has passed 21 years in journalism this year. He is currently working to increase the reach of www.bbcbangla.com, the Bengali website of world’s top news outlet the BBC, which is widely revered in Bangladesh.  

In more than two decades in journalism, Aharar worked for newspapers, tv, radio, online and social media. But was this journey a bed of roses?

“My primary school was three kilometers away from home and I had to cross all the way on foot. It was a mud road which was divided by a river without a bridge. Only way to cross the river was to use a ferry boat. During the monsoon, the road became so muddy that sometimes I found dirt all over my body and schoolbag”, said Aharar.

It was the time when people outside Dhaka got the daily newspaper on the next day of Publishing. But in Kachua Upazilla of Bagerhat, where Aharar lived in his childhood, it took one more day. But Aharar was so fond of reading newspapers that he collected that old newspaper and instantly went through it from top to bottom. His hunger for news is still the same. For the last ten years he has been involved with BBC News Bangla. He started there as a radio producer but after working for all the BBC Bangla outlets now he takes the editorial decisions for it’s website.

Born in Dhaka in 1982, Aharar has spent most of his childhood in his father’s village home. At the teen age he was sent to the divisional city for his educational betterment. His dad, who was a medicine shop owner, wanted the elder son to be a doctor like all the typical fathers. But Aharar decided his future himself long before he left the village for Khulna.  

“All through my educational journey I always knew what I wanted to be,” said Aharar. 

After higher secondary education in 1999 he was admitted into the University of Dhaka and his only choice was Mass Communication & Journalism. From the very first day of his educational life he started freelancing for different national daily, weekly and fortnightly newspapers. In 2004 when he had finished a short intern program at Prothom Alo, the most circulated newspaper of Bangladesh, the editor Motiur Rahman offered him a fulltime job under wage board. Aharar was the first ever employee of daily Prothom Alo who got appointed as a full-timer long before he completed his graduation. Though his dream was to work for the BBC, after working for a while at Prothom Alo, he joined the Ntv in 2006 and soon became famous for his tv reporting. Finally he got the chance to work for the BBC in 2011.

For journalism he has visited many countries along with the USA and different destinations in Europe.

As a journalist he has seen the Iraq War, Tsunami, 9/11 attack, Afghan invasion and many historical events that shook the world. In Bangladesh he covered physically the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, rise of militancy, events of one-eleven, BDR mutiny, Rana Plaza collapse, militant attacks at Holey Artisan Bakery, Rohingya crisis. He was awarded the ‘Best Reporter’ award by Dhaka Reporters Unity three years in a row.