Published : 23 Oct 2026, 01:04 AM
Updated : 23 Oct 2026, 01:04 AM
The plans were taking shape. Meetings had mapped out the celebrations, a commemorative publication was in the works, and the event’s design was being finalised. Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi had chosen a motto for the occasion: “Pioneering, Independent, Fearless -- Beyond 20 Years!”
Then, 21 days before the milestone, he was gone.
On Friday, bdnews24.com marks its 20th anniversary, two decades after helping bring Bangladesh’s news industry into the digital age. But the occasion arrives under the shadow of the death of the man who led its transformation.
Khalidi died on Oct 2, aged 59, leaving behind a newsroom preparing to celebrate the institution he had built.
The grand anniversary event has been postponed. Instead, the bdnews24.com family will mark the day in an intimate gathering, with colleagues reaffirming their determination to follow the path he charted.
“Reaching this anniversary would have been a source of immense pride for Toufique Bhai, but we now mark 20 years of bdnews without the doyen of digital journalism in Bangladesh,” says Biswadip Das, who took over as acting editor-in-chief following Khalidi’s death.
A Newsroom ahead of Its Time
Khalidi’s name is entwined with many of the firsts in Bangladesh’s modern news industry. The story began in the first half of 2005, when bdnews, like other news agencies, supplied reports to media outlets. While other agencies relied on teleprinters, bdnews began distributing news over the internet.
A change in ownership and management in 2006 transformed the organisation. In July that year, a new management team led by Khalidi turned it into Bangladesh’s first dotcom company.
On Oct 23, bdnews24.com began its new life as a round-the-clock news operation, ushering in a new era of digital journalism in the country.
Over the next two decades, the organisation did more than report events. It documented history while continually expanding the ways news could reach readers.
Multimedia content became part of its website, while mobile news services, breaking news and alerts in both Bangla and English helped establish new benchmarks. It developed distinct spaces for readers of different ages and tastes, and followed them onto social media.
More than 10 million people now follow bdnews24.com on Facebook.
Yet Khalidi’s greatest pride was not the number of innovations the organisation introduced, but its refusal to compromise on journalistic standards. Until his death, he steered the newsroom by a simple credo: “Accurate news before everyone else.”
Remembering his former chief, Biswadip said: “Toufique Bhai was a formidable journalist, equally at home with the complexities of economic policy and the subtleties of cultural life. His curiosity was wide-ranging, and he brought the same rigour and attention to detail to whatever subject he turned his mind to mentor to next generation of journalists.”
Biswadip said Khalidi understood the internet’s potential to overcome the longstanding barriers of cost and distribution that kept newspapers beyond the reach of many ordinary Bangladeshis.
“It is also easy to forget how far ahead of his time Toufique Bhai was. He recognised the internet’s potential to break through the barriers of cost and distribution that had long limited access to newspapers for the average Bangladeshi.
“In 2006, when few appreciated what online journalism could become, he launched bdnews24.com as the country’s first round-the-clock online news publisher.
“As internet access became an everyday part of life in Bangladesh, bdnews24.com grew into one of the country’s most visited websites, bringing his vision of serious journalism more accessible to an ever-wider audience.”
Readers could access the latest developments at home and abroad, in Bangla and English, free of charge, at any hour.
The organisation’s founding ambition -- to bring objective journalism to a wider audience -- increasingly became a reality.
But the journey was rarely smooth.
Price of Standing Firm
The organisation faced dozens of lawsuits after refusing to remove old reports about a businessman and his trial. Khalidi was also subjected to five years of harassment through an Anti-Corruption Commission case, which the report says followed the displeasure of influential quarters.
The case against him was withdrawn in September 2024, after a change of power in Bangladesh the previous month.
In 2018, the website was shut down for several hours through unlawful interference after it reported the widely known identity of an army chief’s brother. In 2023, another campaign led to the site remaining inaccessible for a month.
bdnews24.com survived both episodes, returning with renewed determination.
Khalidi often highlighted the organisation’s role in replacing rumour-driven reporting with a tradition grounded in verifiable sources. On its 18th anniversary, he reflected on the significance of that shift.
“I think our history over the past 18 years is an important chapter in the history of journalism in Bangladesh, for various reasons. Our colleagues have said this at different times.
“We have managed to deeply embed objectivity in Bangladeshi journalism. People can no longer simply publish reports based on stories and rumours at will.
“At one time, political reporting in Bangladesh meant all sorts of wild tales. When we started writing with sources cited, it became difficult for reporters to write whatever they wanted and get it published.”
The words carry particular weight as the newsroom marks its 20th year without the editor who championed that approach.
Khalidi had personally led preparations for the anniversary before his death on Oct 2. His absence has transformed what was meant to be a celebration into a moment of reflection on the institution he leaves behind.
Biswadip said Khalidi shouldered much of the institutional pressure that has long weighed on journalism in Bangladesh, shielding colleagues from it whenever he could.
“Toufique Bhai absorbed much of the institutional pressure that has long shaped journalism in Bangladesh, shielding those around him wherever he could. Through it all, he continued to build a newsroom whose standards would endure beyond him.”
Now, the responsibility of preserving that legacy rests with those who remain.
“Our task now is to reclaim the lead he gave us. That means finding new ways to reach and serve a changing country while upholding the standards he valued. That work now falls to us.”
Twenty years after bdnews24.com began its round-the-clock journey, the anniversary motto Khalidi chose remains a promise to fulfil. The celebration may be subdued, but the newsroom’s resolve is not: to remain pioneering, independent and fearless, and to put accurate news first.
