Arafat co-founded the July Memories archive and led the Bangladesh Free Press Initiative before joining the NCP.
TBS Report
23 October, 2026, 08:05 pm
Last modified: 23 October, 2026, 08:12 pm
The National Citizen Party (NCP) has appointed Yeasir Arafat, co-founder of the July Memories archive and former convener of the Bangladesh Free Press Initiative, as media editor of its reconstituted central convening committee.
The party announced its 195-member reconstituted committee in a press release this afternoon (23 October).
Arafat joined the NCP this year, about a month before the 13th national parliamentary election, ending a nine-year career in journalism.
After completing his studies in Islamic Studies at the University of Dhaka, he began his journalism career. He was one of the founders of Jaban, an analytical magazine that was later shut down by the then Awami League government.
He joined NTV in 2018 and moved to the daily Samakal in 2022.
After the 2024 July Uprising, discussions grew over professionalism in the media industry and improvements to journalists' working conditions and living standards.
In that context, Arafat helped establish the Bangladesh Free Press Initiative with at least two dozen journalists from mainstream media outlets. He resigned as the organisation's convener when he joined the NCP.
Arafat also worked to preserve the cultural record of the July Uprising. He co-founded July Memories, an archive of graffiti, songs, slogans and poems associated with the uprising. The archive's website contains photographs of around 10,000 pieces of graffiti collected from 11 districts.
Since joining the NCP, he has handled media-related responsibilities at the party's central level while working to expand its presence in his home area of Mirpur upazila in Kushtia.
He is also working towards contesting the upcoming upazila parishad election for the chairman's post as an NCP candidate.