The ''Bhutan Times'' is
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 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 interview of
Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, the young
crown prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...
of Bhutan, who had recently been designated to succeed his father as king in 2008.
The creation of a
free press within Bhutan is recognized as an important step in the ongoing transformation of Bhutan into a democratic society (see
History of Bhutan). The weekly paper came out on Sundays until December 2007 when the management decided to become a bi-weekly paper. Bhutan Times came out on Wednesdays and Sundays for a period before reverting to only being published on Sundays.
The private newspaper is run by a group of young reporters and editors. At its peak, the paper employed 98 people, but , that had decreased to 10.
Another private newspaper called the ''
Bhutan Observer
The ''Bhutan Observer'' was Bhutan's first private bilingual newspaper. It was launched as a private limited company by parent company Bhutan Media Services (BMS), and began publishing on June 2, 2006, in Thimphu. Its Dzongkha edition was called ...
'' was launched later in 2006.
In 2009, its editorial staff resigned en masse due to disagreements with the paper's leadership, prompting concern from the
International Federation of Journalists
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries.
The IFJ is an associate ...
.
References
{{reflist
External links
"Two private newspapers to start in April", Kuensel Online
Newspapers published in Bhutan
English-language newspapers published in Asia
Dzongkha-language newspapers
Publications established in 2006
2006 establishments in Bhutan