Haveeru Daily
Encyclopedia
Haveeru Daily is the longest serving daily 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...

 in the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...

, established on January 1, 1979.

History

When local newspaper "Moonlight" ceased publication on December 9, 1978, Haveeru was registered on December 28, 1978, to fill the gap created by the absence of a newspaper. The first issue of Haveeru was brought out on January 1, 1979, under the proprietorship of Mohamed Zahir Hussain
Mohamed Zahir Hussain
Dr. Mohamed Zahir Hussain, is the former Education Minister and Minister of Youth and Sports of the Maldives. He resigned from the post in the year 2004 but was again appointed a senior minister, a special advisor to the president, in 2006 and served until 2008 presidential election...

, who is a close friend of the President and has being serving Minister level positions of the government since 1978, and editorship of Abdulla Sodiq.

The name

The name Haveeru symbolises the onset of the cool evening time after the heat of the day, which is also the time when the newspaper is brought out. In Dhivehi
Dhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...

 literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, "haveeru kurun" means the get-together of poets and writers for literary exchanges. Thus, it was decided that the newspaper's name should also symbolise news, information and literary larnig was done

Haveeru Daily is the longest serving daily newspaper in Maldives, which marked its 20th anniversary on 1 January 1999. Established on 1 January 1979, Haveeru has excelled with over two decades of journalistic experience.

THE BEGINNING

When local newspaper "Moonlight" ceased publication on 9 December 1978, Haveeru was registered on 28 December 1978 to fill the gap created by the absence of a newspaper. The first issue of Haveeru was brought out on 1 January 1979, under the proprietorship of Mohamed Zahir Hussain, and editorship of Abdulla Sodiq.

Haveeru is the first newspaper to be printed by offset. The newspaper's efforts at getting its own printing press dates as far back as 1 April 1981, when a private printer declined to publish the newspaper.

With just a break of one day, seen by many as an "April Fool" day joke, Haveeru rolled off from another press, but this time not in offset, but hand-written on stencils for cyclostyling. The page size was 30x42 cm.
The newspaper first rolled off Haveeru's own offset press on 1 September 1986, with a new enlarged size of 38x55cm. The size was later increased to 42.5x60.5 cm on 1 January 1994.

Haveeru's own printing press has largely improved with the ability to print in full colour, thanks to employment of sophisticated printing technologies.

'HAVEERU' - THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION'

The name 'Haveeru' symbolises the onset of the cool evening time after the heat of the day, which is also the time when the newspaper is brought out. In Dhivehi literature, "haveeru kurun" means the get-together of poets and writers for literary exchanges. Thus, it was decided that the newspaper's name should also symbolise news, information and literary exchanges.

OVERCOMING TECHNICAL HURDLES


Many technical setbacks have been overcome with innovation and automation. Haveeru is the first Maldives newspaper to be computerised, in 1985. In also another first, Haveeru began to use Thaana typewriters and Thaana word processors. The ability to facilitate Thaana, Maldives unique script, on computers had eased writing, editing and layout designing to a great extent, enhancing aesthetic beauty of the paper.

NEW DESIGN CONCEPT

As the newspaper braces to achieve greater strides in journalistic excellence, improvements to the newspaper's content, layout and design, and professionalism became inevitable. The change of the newspaper's layout style and language from the traditional to the more modern modular design is in keeping with these principles. The traditional trend was toward lengthy articles and serials, but Haveeru opted for crisp and clarity in reporting to ensure that its contents are unbiased, and free from prejudice.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT - KEY TO SUCCESS

Haveeru underscores the need to tap its human resource to ensure maximum efficiency. In-house training courses are undertaken from time to time, along with overseas training schemes. Haveeru has been fortunate to get assistance from foreign agencies such as the Asia Foundation, and enjoys close affiliation with the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU).

THE PEOPLE'S PAPER


With the largest circulation, Haveeru is the leading daily newspaper in the Maldives. The newspaper's success largely depends on its sensitivity to the needs of both its local and foreign readers. Haveeru aptly identifies with social and economic causes, and has been enormously successful in its campaigns for environmental conservation. This was demonstrated when the United Nations Environment programme bestowed its Global 500 environmental honour on Haveeru's photojournalist Mohamed Zahir following a series of environmental articles published in Haveeru, which he wrote under the initials "Meemu Zaviyani".

Haveeru makes no compromise in total coverage of local events, particularly ones the public identify with. Public interaction with Haveeru in recent months has greatly improved with the introduction of a "Haveeru Hotline" and its feedback page. A telephone line has been exclusively set aside for the public to direct their queries regarding an issue to Haveeru, which then channels it to the appropriate authority, and provide their feedback through the newspaper.

ATOLLS, WHERE THE REAL ACTION IS


A newspaper dedicated to the cause of social, economic and political developments of Maldives, Haveeru is also conscious of the changing landscape of the islands, and has brought these developments to the limelight through dedicated reports, features and articles devoted to the progress of island communities.

A full-time journalist is assigned to give coverage to events in the islands, and stringers based in major islands contributed to direct reporting from the atolls.

A great achievement towards this direction was the establishment of a bureau of the newspaper in Addu atoll Feydhoo in May 1998. Two full-time reporters staff it.

Haveeru continues to receive electronic images and digital data from the atolls via its own Intranet, HaveeruNet, and in some cased the global information superhighway
Information superhighway
The information superhighway or infobahnwas a popular term used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems and the Internet telecommunications network. It is associated with United States Senator and later Vice-President Al Gore....

.

Haveeru plans to conduct journalism courses in major atolls, with the short term objective of basing qualified stringers in the atoll communities, and with the long term aim of establishing more 'regional bureaus' to give coverage to the island communities.

WORLD NEWS VIA SATELLITE

Haveeru is the first newspaper in Maldives to link up with a foreign news agency, the first such link-up being in Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) in 1985. However, the use of radioteletype
Radioteletype
Radioteletype is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations, later superseded by personal computers running software to emulate teleprinters, connected by radio rather than a wired link.The term radioteletype is used to...

receivers was not then a successful venture as news reception was often disrupted by unstable weather. Hence, Haveeru turned towards satellite communications, and the newspaper became the first Maldives daily to establish links—via satellite—to get news and information for the print media.

The difficulties in obtaining foreign news had thus been solved, after Haveeru went for the first such link-up, with Agence France Presse (AFP) in 1992. It was followed by another link-up with Reuters news agency in 1994.

REPORTING FROM THE ATOLLS

The Internet has also facilitated Haveeru's journalists to report from remote locations, by sending electronic images and data to its newsroom in Male. The first such images and news sent remotely were those covering President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's visit to Maldives southernmost atoll, Addu, to participate the 1997 Youth Day's celebrations. Since then, Haveeru continues to cover on-the-spot events from both local and foreign locations.

In May 1998, Haveeru established Haveeru Addu Bureau at Addu atoll Feydhoo Island, the first regional news centre by a newspaper. Two full-time journalists are stationed there to cover events in the southern atolls, and reporting is carried out by sending information via the World Wide Web.

GOING ONLINE

The last three years were remarkably successful for Haveeru as it became the first newspaper in Maldives to take the innovative step of going online, with its interactive edition, Haveeru Daily Online, established and updated daily on Internet. An international dimension was given to

A newspaper that began as a source of information for a strictly small Maldivian population, it has gone a long way to realise the "Haveeru dream" and today enjoys a wide international audience hungry to know the story of how a string of resource-limited, sparsely populated and environmentally fragile island-state has overcome all hurdles to bring prosperity and progress to its people.

Now Haveeru Daily can be accessed www.haveeru.com.mv

External links

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