Dear Readers,  

           The idea to launch a newsmagazine you are taking a look at – at this very moment -- was conceived several years ago when I examined the amount of coverage of South Asia on the Western media. Since then, the more I thought about the conspicuously inadequate coverage of South Asian nations by Western radio, television and newspapers, the more strongly I felt the necessity of doing something along this line. Even today as admitted by the Western media themselves, Asia is grossly underreported in the West, and shockingly the South Asian part of the largest continent of the world is more so. Also disturbing is Western media’s obsession with the publicity of the predominantly bad news of other parts of the planet, particularly South Asia. 

            With a challenge in the back of my mind, and a strong desire to bring South Asia into a greater focus worldwide, one day I met with Mr. LaRue Gilleland, then the director of the School of Journalism of Boston’s Northeastern University, and asked: “How would you like the idea of launching a publication on little-known South Asia?” Even before I could complete my sentence, Mr. Gilleland bounced back a counter question at me: “Being a South Asian journalist, if you do not come forward to do something along this line, who will?” This word of encouragement from Mr. Gilleland, an American journalist and later a teacher of journalism as well as mine, intensified my enthusiasm that day, and finally prompted me to take a bold step to materialize a long-cherished dream: spotlighting South Asia.

            We will focus extensively on various critical issues facing South Asia today. Nuclear proliferation, environmental pollution, crisis of democracy, human rights abuse, women trafficking, child labor, religious fundamentalism, corruption are just few examples of what will be routinely discussed in our online magazine. However, unlike the Western media, we will cover both the dark and bright sides of news in order to pursue a fair and balanced journalism.

             Side by side with the current affairs, we will regularly cover the economic news of the South Asian countries. It’s needless to mention that South Asia is rich in art, culture and literature.  Perhaps the culture of our part of the world has had little exposure in the West, but our glorious arts and literature (with an exception of Tagore) are barely unveiled beyond the border of South Asia. So, in order to introduce South Asia’s arts and literature to the rest of the world, South Asia Times will have a separate section called “Arts and Literature.”

             Journalists in almost all South Asian nations face constant hurdles while performing their professional duties. They are routinely harassed and persecuted in some countries where press is controlled with a heavy hand. Therefore, an important mission of the South Asia Times will be to aggressively advocate for full freedom of the press across South Asia because a free press is vital for advancing any greater cause. An independent press is also important for accurately reflecting the vices and virtues of a society.

      While keeping our eyes wide open on South Asia, we will not turn our back to the vast South Asian community scattered all over the world. In order to serve our community, South Asia Times will have a Community News Section. We will also publish a comprehensive calendar of community events wherever they take place in the world. However, the success of these two particular sections will depend largely on establishment of links between us and our community members. While we are trying our best to reach out to the members of our community in different parts of the globe, we are inviting them to contact us with news and information on a regular basis, and facilitate building a solid and permanent bridge of info between South Asia Times and South Asian community.

            Finally, I am urging you to join us in promoting South Asia Times and turning it into a complete Internet magazine of your choice. Your first step to help South Asia Times will be to contact us and be our critic, adviser, well-wisher, contributor, or simply a source of information or news. We will carefully read your every opinion, suggestion as well as criticism, which we strongly believe, will help us improve South Asia Times and shape its policy.

Enjoy the first issue of our web magazine and spread the word about our new venture all around !

                                                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                                                              Syed  Badiuzzaman