Shafiqul Alam appointed chief adviser’s press secretary
He will be entitled to the rank of a secretary and a monthly salary of Tk78,000 among other facilities, the notification reads
Shafiqul Alam, Bangladesh bureau chief of Agence France-Presse (AFP), has been appointed as the press secretary to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus.
The public administration ministry issued a notification in this regard on Tuesday (13 August) night.
He will be entitled to the rank of a secretary and a monthly salary of Tk78,000, the notification reads.
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"My job as the Press Secretary is challenging. There are only a handful of people who can match the energy of Professor Muhammad Yunus. If I got disillusioned, I won't return to AFP or agency journalism," Shafiqul Alam wrote in a Facebook status posted at 11:48pm tonight.
"Will try to be back in local journalism or do some slow journalism or even write books. I took considerable financial pain to join this job. I hope I will be able to fulfil all the expectations. Seek your prayers and good wishes!!" the post also reads.
In the post, Shafiqul also announced the end of his AFP career.
"This is the end of my journey at AFP. I am indebted to three of my bureau chiefs here, Helen Rowe, Julie Rowe and Cat Barton. I learnt much of my journalism from these three incredible women. They told me no amount of pressure and bullying from the government or powerful people would work if my quotes and sourcing were OK. I stuck to this golden rule all my 20 years at AFP. AFP's increasing focus on the unknown aspects of life in Bangladesh also helped me learn the country much better," he wrote.
