The areas comprising former East Pakistan have always been extremely backward in the field of journalism. Ilefore Partition, these areas remained ignored, because Calcutta, the seat of the Central Government, and later Provincial capital, was the main centre of cultural, social and journalistic activities.

The “Dacca News’ was the first English newspaper that speared from Dacca in 1850. Its founder editor was Mr. Alexander Forbes who came to India in 1842 along with Dwarkanath Tagore, a prominent figure of the Bengal, who was returning from England after his first visit to that country.

From evidence available, the “Dacca News’ appears to be the only Paper in existence till 1857 in the territories of former East Pakistan. This Paper was also called the “Bengal Times’. Another Paper was the weekly “Times’ which was a literary journal conducted by students and it published only essays written by them.

During the close of the 19th century, there appeared from Chittagong, the “Mohammadan Observer’, almost at the time when the “Punjab Observer’ started to appear from 1=11 lore. The “Mohammadan Observer’ was sponsored by Shah Bnili -ul-Alam, a high Government official who resigned his job In order to run this fortnightly that continued to give support to all Muslim movements for quite a number of years.

The most important aspect of former East Pakistan Press was that till 1947, there existed not a single daily in the whole area.