The Barents Observer

Last updated
The Barents Observer
Logo thebarentsobserver.png
Format Online newspaper
EditorThomas Nilsen
Founded2015
LanguageEnglish, Russian, Chinese
Website thebarentsobserver.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Barents Observer (formally The Independent Barents Observer) is a Norwegian online newspaper which publishes news and op-ed content about the Barents Region in English, Russian and Chinese. The newspaper is based in Kirkenes and is owned by its journalists. [1] It receives financial support from the European Endowment for Democracy, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Norwegian government, the Fritt Ord foundation, private companies and individuals. [2] [3]

Contents

History

The newspaper's predecessor was founded by Atle Staalesen in 2002 as Barents News. It changed its name to BarentsObserver in 2003 and operated under the aegis of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat from 2005 to 2015. [4] [5]

Following a dispute regarding their editorial freedom in 2015, the newspaper's staff left BarentsObserver and subsequently launched today's journalist owned paper, The Independent Barents Observer. [6]

The online newspaper launched its Chinese version in 2019, having previously been published in English and Russian only. [7]

2019 Russian censorship

In March 2019, The Barents Observer was blocked for readers in Russia after having published an interview with a homosexual Sámi activist describing his suicidal thoughts. [8] [9] A member of the Russian State Duma supported the blocking, saying that the article expressed "degeneration and decay". [10] The newspaper actively tries to bypass the blockade. [2]

2022 Murmansk recording

In 2022, The Barents Observer was offered a video showing a Norwegian diplomat complaining about a hotel room in Murmansk, using undiplomatic language. Thomas Nielsen, the newspaper's editor, decided not to publish the video, justifying his decision by saying that the video was filmed by Russian intelligence. [11] The case was widely covered by other outlets. [12]

Related Research Articles

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. Such freedom implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state; its preservation may be sought through a constitution or other legal protection and security. It is in opposition to paid press, where communities, police organizations, and governments are paid for their copyrights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sør-Varanger Municipality</span> Municipality in Finnmark, Norway

Sør-Varanger is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kirkenes. Other settlements in the municipality include the villages of Bjørnevatn, Bugøynes, Elvenes, Grense Jakobselv, Hesseng, Jakobsnes, Neiden, and Sandnes. Located west of the Norway–Russia border, Sør-Varanger is the only Norwegian municipality that shares a land border with Russia, with the only legal border crossing at Storskog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barents Region</span> Place

The Barents Region is a name given, by advocates of establishing international cooperation after the fall of the Soviet Union, to the land along the coast of the Barents Sea, from Nordland in Norway to the Kola Peninsula in Russia and beyond all the way to the Ural Mountains and Novaya Zemlya, and south to the Gulf of Bothnia of the Baltic Sea and the great lakes Ladoga and Onega. Among the projects is the Barents Road from Bodø in Norway through Haparanda in Sweden and Finland to Murmansk in Russia. The region has six million inhabitants on 1.75 million km2; three quarters of both belong to Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkenes</span> City/town within Sør-Varanger Municipality, Finnmark, Norway

Kirkenes, Girkonjárga (Northern Sami; pronounced[ˈkir̥ː.ko.ˌɲaːrːka], or Kirkkoniemi  is a town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsula along the Bøkfjorden, an arm of the large Varangerfjorden, and is located just a few kilometres from the Norway–Russia border.

Dagen is a Norwegian Christian newspaper established in 1919, and published in Bergen. The average circulation in 2004 was 5,307 copies. The ideological goal of the newspaper was "to influence society from a revival Christian point of view". On 1 January 2008 the newspaper merged with another Christian newspaper, Magazinet, and was renamed to DagenMagazinet. On 1 April 2011 DagenMagazinet was renamed to Dagen. The current chief editor of Dagen as of 2010 is Vebjørn Selbekk, former editor of Magazinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwegian News Agency</span> Norwegian press agency and wire service

The Norwegian News Agency is a Norwegian press agency and wire service that serves most of the largest Norwegian media outlets. The agency is located in Oslo and has bureaus in Brussels in Belgium and Tromsø in northern Norway. NTB operates 24 hours a day, with the night service handled from a bureau in Sydney, Australia since 2015. The photo agency Scanpix is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTB.

The Red Party is a socialist political party in Norway. It was founded in March 2007 by a merger of the Red Electoral Alliance and the Workers' Communist Party. A Marxist party, it has been described as left-wing and far-left on the political spectrum. In its political programme, the Red Party sets the creation of a classless society to be its ultimate goal, which the party says is "what Karl Marx called communism". The party's other goals are replacing capitalism with socialism, an expansive public sector and nationalisation of large enterprises. It strongly opposes Norway becoming a member of the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norway–Russia relations</span> Bilateral relations

Norway–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the two countries, Norway and Russia. The establishment of diplomatic relationships between the two countries happened on October 30, 1905, four days after the establishment of Norway's independence. Russia has an embassy in Oslo and consulates in Barentsburg and Kirkenes, and Norway has an embassy in Moscow, and consulates in Murmansk and Saint Petersburg. The countries are neighboring each other along a 195.7 km long border. Norway is on Russia's Unfriendly Countries List.

<i>Universitas</i> (newspaper) Weekly newspaper edited and written by students in Oslo, Norway

Universitas is a weekly newspaper edited and written by students in Oslo, Norway. It has its editorial offices at the University of Oslo and has been published every week since 1946. With a weekly circulation of 17,000 and 30 publications a year, as well as around 30,000 page viewings a week, Universitas is one of the largest student papers in Europe. It is distributed every Thursday morning on 28 places of higher learning in Oslo.

Sara Mats Azmeh Rasmussen is a Syrian-Norwegian author, freelance writer, lecturer and human rights activist. She was born in 1973 and grew up in Damascus, Syria, in a Sunni Muslim family with deep roots in the capital. In 1995 she immigrated alone to Norway, and in 1997 she was granted political asylum. She was later granted Swedish citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norway–Russia border</span> International border

The border between Norway and Russia consists of a 195.7-kilometer (121.6 mi) land border between Sør-Varanger Municipality, Norway, and Pechengsky District, Russia, and a 23.2-kilometer (14.4 mi) marine border in the Varangerfjord. It further consists of a border between the two countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Between 1944 and 1991 the border was between Norway and the Soviet Union. There is a single border crossing, on E105, located at Storskog in Norway and Borisoglebsky in Russia. The Norwegian side is patrolled by the Garrison of Sør-Varanger and is under the jurisdiction of the Norwegian Border Commissioner, while the Russian side is patrolled by the Border Guard Service of Russia. Two-thirds of the border follows two rivers, the Pasvikelva and Jakobselva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwegian Barents Secretariat</span> Organisation promoting Norway–Russia relations

The Norwegian Barents Secretariat aims at developing the Norwegian-Russian relations in the north by promoting and funding Norwegian-Russian cooperation projects. As of 2022, the organisation has 11 employees in Kirkenes; its offices are in Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, the Nenets Region and Kirkenes.

Thomas Nilsen is a Norwegian journalist who has extensively covered oil drilling in the Arctic region. He was editor of the BarentsObserver, a Norwegian Arctic online newspaper based in Kirkenes, for six years before he was sacked in 2015. Norway’s public service broadcaster, NRK, claim Nilsen was sacked at the behest of the Russian intelligence service, the FSB.

FS <i>Marjata</i> (2014)

FS Marjata is a Norwegian purpose-built electronic intelligence collection vessel (ELINT), which was ordered by the parliament in 2010. It was baptized on 6 December 2014 by Prime Minister Erna Solberg. The ship is crewed by the Norwegian Intelligence Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barents Euro-Arctic Council</span> Intergovernmental organization

The Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) is the official body for inter-governmental co-operation in the Barents Region. It seeks solutions wherever and whenever the countries can achieve more together than by working on their own. Cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region was launched in 1993 on two levels: intergovernmental Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and interregional Barents Regional Council (BRC). The overall objective of Barents cooperation has been sustainable development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic Railway</span> Planned railway connection from Northern Finland to the Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Railway is a planned railway line linking the Norwegian Arctic port of Kirkenes with the Finnish railway network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sápmi Pride</span> Pride festival with Sápmi focus in Europe

Sápmi Pride is a pride festival with Sápmi focus arranged annually since 2014.

Valentina Vyacheslavovna Sovkina is a Russian-Sami politician and chair of the Kola Sámi Assembly.

Bjarne Store-Jakobsen is a Norwegian politician, activist, and journalist. In 2005, he was elected to the Sámi Parliament of Norway as a member of the Labour Party. He was selected by the Sámi parliament to serve as a representative for the Sami People of Norway at the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples at the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, where he would serve as leader. He served as an advisor for the President of the Sámi Parliament Egil Olli until his dismissal in 2011. He would later leave the Labour Party and serve as the leader of the Sámi People's Party.

References

  1. "The Independent Barentsobserver AS - 916104987 - Kirkenes - Se Regnskap, Roller og mer". www.proff.no.
  2. 1 2 "The Barents Observer values freedom of speech and support for democracy". The Independent Barents Observer.
  3. "Medietilsynet har fordelt 21 millionar kroner: Nesten halvparten av årets innovasjonsstøtte går til små, lokale medium | Medietilsynet". kommunikasjon.ntb.no.
  4. "History of BarentsObserver.com". Barentsobserver. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  5. "The Barents Observer values freedom of speech and support for democracy". The Independent Barents Observer. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  6. NTB (2015-10-23). "Barents Observer-journalister starter ny nettavis". www.journalisten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  7. Silvola, Nils Martin (2019-02-13). "The Barents Observer lanserer kinesisk versjon". www.journalisten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  8. "From suicide attempts to happiness and Sámi pride". The Independent Barents Observer.
  9. "Moscow bans the Barents Observer from Russian Internet". Bellona.org. February 20, 2019.
  10. American, The Norwegian (March 7, 2019). "Russia blocks Barents Observer". The Norwegian American.
  11. Marvik, Jo Arne (July 31, 2022). "Norsk diplomat i Russland: – Provokasjon frå russisk etterretning". NRK.
  12. "Norwegian consul filmed insulting Russians at hotel". July 31, 2022.