Journalist-Turned-Politician Yasir Arafat Becomes NCP Media Secretary

Yasir Arafat has been given responsibility as media secretary of the National Citizen Party's (NCP) reorganised central convening committee. The information was announced in a notification issued by the party on Friday (23 October).

Yasir Arafat ended a nine-year career in journalism and joined the NCP in February this year, one month before the national election. After leaving journalism for direct party politics, he has now received an important central responsibility for media affairs.

Yasir Arafat began journalism after completing his studies in Islamic Studies at the University of Dhaka. Alongside his studies and journalism, he was one of the founders of the analytical magazine 'Jaban'. At one stage, the Awami League government shut that magazine down, according to the report.

In his professional life, he joined NTV in 2018. He later joined the daily Samakal in 2022 and worked there as a journalist. Over that long period he gained experience of work inside the media, which is expected to help him in carrying out the duties of the party's media secretary.

When he joined the NCP, he resigned as convener of an organisation called the Bangladesh Free Press Initiative. Leaving the leadership of that organisation, he devoted himself fully to party politics.

Yasir Arafat has also worked to preserve the cultural material of the July mass uprising. He is a co-founder of 'July Memories', a large archive of graffiti, songs, slogans and poems from July.

The 'July Memories' website holds photographs of around 10,000 pieces of graffiti from 11 districts of the country. His involvement in that initiative to preserve the creative expression of the movement period is a large part of his public identity.

Since joining the NCP, he has carried out media-related duties at the party centre while also working to expand the NCP's politics in his own area, Mirpur upazila of Kushtia. He has been active at both the centre and the field level.

He is also reported to be working with the aim of contesting the chairman post for the NCP in the upcoming upazila parishad election. Alongside his central responsibility, he therefore also has a role in local electoral politics.

Receiving the media secretary post in the reorganised central convening committee has formally increased his responsibility for the party's publicity and media communication. Reaching the media with the party's statements and maintaining contact with journalists are the core tasks of the post.

The decision to give party publicity responsibility to a person who has come from journalism into politics is being seen as part of the NCP's organisational reorganisation. Political circles are also watching who has come into the other posts of the new committee.

It remains to be seen how Yasir Arafat organises the party's publicity structure as media secretary, and how far he can advance his election preparations in Mirpur at the same time.