Rahman was born on 7 January 1951 in Sherpur District. He passed Secondary School Certificate from Sherpur Victoria Academy in 1966 and passed Higher Secondary School Certificate from Jagannath College in 1968. Later, he graduated from Ashek Mahmud College in Jamalpur District in 1972 and got a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism degree from the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism from University of Dhaka. He took the first position in the first class and received two gold medals in the post-graduate examination of journalism at the Mysore University, with the scholarship of the Government of India. He obtained PhD in Journalism and Mass Communication from the same university in 1986.
Politics and liberation war
Rahman was associated with progressive student politics in the student life. He was an active activist of mass movement in 1969. In 1971, he took part in the liberation war. He fought in Sector 11.
Career
Rahman started journalism in the 1970s as the Daily Azad and Sherpur district correspondent of the Bangladesh Times. In 1977, he started his career as a journalist in Eastern News Agency. In that year, he joined Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He became a lecturer in the Mass Communication and Journalism Department of University of Dhaka in 1978. He has long been a professor of Mass Communication and Journalism Department of Dhaka University and he served as the chairman of the same department until 1990–93. Joining the Information Commission as Chief Information Commissioner and He was the chairman of the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha before. He was a Pro vice-chancellor of Daffodil International University in the year 2014–15. He has been a professor in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University for almost four decades and served as Provost of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall of the same university. Rahman also was Professor and Head of Department of Language and Communication Studies of the University of Technology, Papua New Guinea. Professor Rahman is also acting as the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Policy, he is also the Chairman of Asian Media, Information and Communication Bangladesh Representative and worked as a media specialist of the UN's International Drug Controller Project. He was the Vice-President of the Commonwealth Association for Educationals in Journalism and Communication. He is a member of the Bangladesh Sensor Board Appellate Committee.
Published books
Communication Issues in Bangladesh , Ananda Publications, 1999