Die Burger - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Die Burger is a daily Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

language newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, published by Naspers

Naspers

Naspers is a South Africa-based multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media and print media Naspers is a South Africa-based multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media (including pay-television, internet and instant-messaging subscriber...

. By 2008, it had a circulation of 91,665 in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Along with Beeld

Beeld

Beeld is an Afrikaans language daily newspaper that was launched on 16 September 1974. Beeld is distributed in five provinces of South Africa: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and KwaZulu-Natal. Die Beeld was an Afrikaans language Sunday newspaper in the late 1960s...

and Volksblad

Volksblad

The Volksblad is an Afrikaans language daily newspaper published in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and distributed in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces, where it is the largest Afrikaans daily. It is South Africa's oldest Afrikaans newspaper...

, it is one of three broadsheet dailies in the Media24

Media24

Media24 is the print media arm of the South African media company Naspers. It controls Naspers' newspaper and magazine Southern African publishing as well as printing activities but also includes the internet activities of the 24.com collection of web portals...

stable.

History

On December 18, 1914, sixteen prominent Afrikaners gathered in Stellenbosch to discuss the establishment of a national newspaper. With considerable financial support from local philanthropists Jannie and Christiaan Marais, the project soon got off the ground with the founding of de Nasionale Pers ("the National Press") and the selection of Dr. D.F. Malan as editor of its daily paper, Die Burger ("The Citizen"). The first issue was published on July 26, 1915.

Language

Die Burger was originally published in Dutch. In 1916, the first Afrikaans-language articles were published. In 1921, the newspaper's Dutch title (De Burger) was translated into Afrikaans (Die Burger).

Political Affiliation

Die Burger was a newspaper which supported the nationalist cause and apartheid, and used to be the mouthpiece of the National Party of South Africa. This only began to change after 1985, when then editor Piet Cillié a staunch supporter of the government under B J Vorster and PW Botha retired. In 1990, the National Party was officially informed by editor Ebbe Dommisse that it no longer served as a political mouthpiece. This disaffiliation was continued in 1999 with the appointment of a more progressive editor, Arrie Rossouw. In 2006, Henry Jeffreys became the first black editor of the paper.

List of editors

D.F. Malan (1915-1924)
Albertus Geyer (1924-1945)
Phil Weber (1945-1954)
Piet Cillié (1954-1977)
Wiets Beukes (1977-1990)
Ebbe Dommisse (1990-2000)
Arrie Rossouw (2000-2006)
Henry Jeffreys (2006-2010)
Bun Booyens (2010-)

Sources

Nieman Reports at Harvard University
Die Burger 2000/8/05
Die Burger 2005/7/26

External links