The ''Bhutan Observer'' was
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
's first private bilingual
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
. It was launched as a private limited company by parent company Bhutan Media Services (BMS), and began publishing on June 2, 2006, in
Thimphu
Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city ...
. Its
Dzongkha edition was called ''Druk Nelug'', and the newspaper maintained an online service in English until 2013.
The newspaper employed about 60 people in editorial, commercial, administrative, and managerial departments. The editorial department won several national journalism awards for the best editorial, best Dzongkha issue, best editorial cartoon, and the most valuable story on
Gross National Happiness
Gross National Happiness (GNH), sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross Nat ...
. The former Executive Editor,
Sonam Kinga Dasho Sonam Kinga is a Bhutanese politician and researcher at the Center for Bhutan Studies. He played the monk in the 2003 film ''Travellers and Magicians'', for which he is also credited as a dialogue coach.
Sonam Kinga obtained his Ph.D and MA ...
, was one of several relatively young individuals to make an early entry into newly
democratic Bhutanese politics in 2007, winning a seat and leadership position in the kingdom's first
National Council elections.
As Bhutan began developing its private media sector, fledgling media outlets including the ''Bhutan Observer'' faced scrutiny by public figures over novice reporting, misquoted sources, and viewpoint biases with the effect of presenting overly sensational and negative coverage in articles. Language of publication has also become a significant issue, as government language requirements strain publishers' budgets.
Druk Nelug
The
Dzongkha edition, ''Druk Nelug'', was published in compliance with government media language requirements.
While Dzongkha is the national language, it is not spoken natively among the majority of Bhutanese. Among the general population, Dzongkha abilities have improved, but still need development according to a ''Bhutan Observer'' editor. Despite language reforms and improved public competency, many Bhutanese find English easier to read, speak, and write.
Amid concerns of the long term sustainability of the ''Bhutan Observer'' and other media's Dzongkha editions, the government in 2007 began to subsidize the translation of English language advertisements into Dzongkha, and granted exemptions from sales tax and import duties. The tax breaks were set to expire after a period of five years, but may be renewed. Both the Dzongkha ''Druk Nelug'' and English language ''Bhutan Observer'' were heavily subsidized by government advertisements within a marketing industry subject to significant government control on a policy basis. In 2011, nearing the five year mark and having neither approached sustainability nor obtained tangible government support, the ''Observer'' requested that the Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA) allow it to discontinue publication of ''Druk Nelug''; that request was denied. The newspaper said it would abide by the government's decision, but that the ''Druk Nelug'' might be reduced to a symbolic publication due to its commercial infeasibility.[
]
End of Print Publication
On August 1, 2013, the ''Bhutan Observer'' announced the end of its printed edition. It continued as an online publication which also ended in 2016.
Honours
* :
**
Member of the National Order of Merit n Gold(17 December 2011).
See also
* Bhutan Broadcasting Service
*Bhutan Times
The ''Bhutan Times'' is Bhutan's first privately owned newspaper, and only the second in the country after the government owned and autonomous ''Kuensel''. Its first edition, with 32 pages, hit newsstands on April 30, 2006, with a high-profile in ...
*Kuensel
{{Contains special characters, Tibetan
''Kuensel'' ( dz, ཀུན་གསལ།, ''Clarity'') is the national newspaper of the Kingdom of Bhutan. It was the only local newspaper available in Bhutan until 2006 when two more List of newspapers i ...
*Media of Bhutan
The various mass media in Bhutan have historically been government-controlled, although this has changed in recent years. The country has its own newspapers, television and radio broadcasters and Internet Service Providers.
Journalism
''Kuensel ...
References
{{reflist
Newspapers published in Bhutan
Dzongkha-language newspapers
English-language newspapers published in Asia
Publications established in 2006
Bilingual newspapers