History
The Free Press Journal is one of the oldest English daily newspapers. Established in 1928 by S. Sadanand, The Free Press Journal is the first Indian-owned English daily newspaper published from Mumbai. The newspaper has been in forefront in ferociously raising India’s voice during the freedom movement, by covering all important events such as the Quit India Movement of 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in India and also the Royal Indian Navy mutiny or revolt, also called the 1946 Naval Uprising.
During the early days of its existence the newspaper had to face the wrath of the British Empire, who harassed the paper, wherever it could by seizing the machines, cutting of power supply and arresting the founder editor S. Sadanand several times using the draconian Criminal Amendment Act for daring to publish freedom struggle news that the British thought amounted to sedition. The publication was suspended several times by the British authorities under the infamous Press Act, which gave the rulers blanket power to seize any press or forfeit any publication. Despite all the strong-arm tactics used by the authorities, The Free Press Journal continued its interrupted publication for more than 9 decades..
The Free Press Journal was also the first Indian entity to establish its own news agency “Free Press of India”, which had presence in many counties. It established offices in London, Cairo and New York and engaged top newsmen in several countries.
Post-Independence, The Free Press Journal was the first to cover all important historical events from the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ midnight speech of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Partition of India, 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil Wars with Pakistan, 1962 war with China, Emergency, Economic Liberalisation etc. The Free Press Journal continuously strives to provide authentic and unbiased news to its readers till date and does not have any affiliation with a political party or business house.
Notable former employees
The Free Press Journal, was the first newspaper to publish a full-page devoted to sports edited by the legendary A.F.S. Talyarkhan, popularly known as Bobby Talyarkhan, who was the pioneer in sports journalism in India. Another first to The Free Press Journal’s credit is a full-page dedicated to Business news, started by Shanti Lal Shah. The Free Press was also the first newspaper to offer an open platform to cartoonists. The world-renowned cartoonists like R.K. Laxman, Balasaheb Thackeray, Shankar and Kutty adorned its desk. The veritable who’s who of Indian journalism have worked with the publication, S. Sadanand, Dom Moraes, S. Natarajan, T.J.S. George, M.V. Kamath, Rajat Sharma, M.J. Akbar, S.A. Sabavala, Ashok Mehta, Janardhan Thakur, A Hariharan, K Srinivasan and many more.