Type Weekly newspaper Editor Andrej Skurko | Owner(s) VPUP Surodzichy Founded 1906 | |
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Language Belarusian (Taraškievica) Headquarters pr. Rakasoŭskaha 102-71, Minsk, Belarus | ||
Nasha Niva (Belarusian: Наша Ніва, Naša Niva, literally Our field) is one of the oldest Belarusian weekly newspapers, founded in 1906 and re-established in 1991.
Contents
The current editor-in-chief is Andrej Skurko, who succeeded Andrej Dyńko.
1906-1915
The newspaper was founded in 1906 by members of the Belarusian Socialist Union (Hramada) in Vilna (modern Vilnius) that was a centre of the Belarusian national movement at that time.
Nasha Niva was amongst the first newspapers in Belarusian language. It published news about Belarus and literary works by Belarusian authors. In 1915, the newspaper was closed down because of the World War I. During the Soviet rule Nasha Niva was claimed to be “counter-revolutionary” and “capitalist” despite the fact that its founders and authors were mostly adherents of socialism.
Since 1991
In 1991, the newspaper was re-established in Vilnius by the editor-in-chief Siarhiej Dubaviec.
Under the presidency of Alexander Lukashenko, the newspaper was subjected to state pressure. At one point in the late 1990s there was an attempt to close down the newspaper because of its use of Taraškievica orthography.
In October 2003, former Czech President Václav Havel granted the cash portion of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award to Nasha Niva editor Andrey Dynko. The Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award is given each year by the Prague Society for International Cooperation to an individual who has dedicated his or her life to public service with the stipulation that the financial portion of the award be passed to a gifted young person. "I pass this award to Mr. Dynko because we, who have benefited so much from international solidarity, must show solidarity ourselves," Havel said at the award ceremony in Prague. "'Nasha Niva' in Belarus is a symbol of independence on the one hand and an island of freedom on the other."
Since 2006 Nasha Niva was expelled from the media subscription system of Belarus (controlled by the state monopolist Belposhta) and has been distributed by enthusiasts until its re-inclusion into the subscription system in late 2008.
In April 2006 the ideology administration of Minsk executive committee ordered Nasha Niva to vacate their offices in an attempt to close the paper. The staff members sent letters of appeals to Lithuania to apply to UNESCO for including the newspaper into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
As of August 2009, Nasha Niva has a circulation of over 6,000 copies.
In May 2012 Nasha Niva launched English and Russian versions of its website.