Initially working as a religious studies teacher, Bafaqih began his journalistic career by translating Arabic articles to Malay for the daily newspaper "Pemandangan". He also became a freelance writer for both "Pemandangan" and the weekly magazine "Pandji". After "Pemandangan" was censured by the Dutch authorities, Bafaqih moved to the Japanese Dōmei news agency to work as an editor. He was still an editor by the time of the proclamation of Indonesian independence. Several hours before the event itself, fellow journalist Adam Malik contacted Bafaqih with a text of the proclamation, and Bafaqih passed it over for a colleague to transmit across the archipelago, without being discovered by Japanese censors. After Indonesian independence, the Dōmei branch became Antara, and Bafaqih worked there as editor-in-chief. He ran the Jakarta office of the agency when its headquarters moved to Yogyakarta in 1946, alongside Mochtar Lubis. Antara was closed for some time after Operation Kraai in 1948, during which Bafaqih worked at the nationalist newspaper "Merdeka".