The ''Windhoek Observer'' is an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

Saturday weekly newspaper, published in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

by Paragon Investment Holding. It is the country's oldest and largest circulating weekly. it had a circulation of 12,000 to 13,000 copies. The ''Windhoek Observer'' was founded in 1978 by

Hannes Smith Johannes Martin "Hannes" Smith (17 March 1933 – 5 August 2008), affectionately known as Smithie, was a Namibian journalist, editor and publisher. He was first reporter at, then the editor of, the ''Windhoek Advertiser'' until 1978 when he and Gw ...

and

Gwen Lister Gwen Lister (born 5 December 1953 in East London, South Africa) is a Namibian journalist, publisher, anti-apartheid and press freedom activist. Early life Growing up under the apartheid system, Lister resolved to fight it as an adult, and c ...

. Lister was the political editor and wanted to give

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

, Namibia's liberation movement, "a 'human face', showing the people, including whites, that they were not the 'terrorists' and 'communists' and the 'black threat' that the colonial regime made them out to be through their blanket propaganda." The newspaper was officially banned in May 1984 after Lister travelled to Zambia to report on Namibian independence talks. Though the ban was lifted after an appeal to

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

's Publications Appeal Board, ''Observer'' management demoted her for having brought it on, triggering Lister's resignation and a walkout of the newspaper's staff. The following year, Lister began a new independent newspaper, ''

The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Smith then ran the ''Windhoek Observer'' as a one-man operation, calling himself "reporter-in-chief". His daughter, Yanna Erasmus, later joined him at the newspaper. Smith adopted a "hard-line editorial stance against those in authority" and "did not bow to the South African nor the

government." After Smith's death in 2008, Erasmus took over as editor. The following year, the newspaper was sold to Paragon Investment Holding, and Kuvee Kangueehi was appointed editor.

References

External links

{{Official, http://www.observer.com.na/ 1978 establishments in South West Africa English-language newspapers published in Namibia Mass media in Windhoek Weekly newspapers published in Namibia Newspapers established in 1978