Everyday Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kazakhstan

If you look for the online version, you will see the name in Cyrillic characters. My Kazakh is not good enough (okay, it is non-existent) to verify that they translate to Almaty Herald, but trust whoever provided their translation into English. While the constitution guarantees media freedom, there has in fact been significant repression of dissent, including the banning of agencies that are critical of the government, such as 'Respublika', formed in 2000 to investigate government corruption.

Almaty is the largest city in the country of Kazakhstan, and was its capital from 1929 to 1997. It remains the commercial and cultural center of the country. It is ethnically diverse, with around two-thirds of the population being Kazakh, and the rest a mixture of Russians (25%), Uyghur (5%), Tatar, Korean and a range of other that amount to about 6% of the city's population.

Answer: France

Originating as a satirical weekly in 1826, 'Le Figaro' is France's oldest national newspaper, with an international recognition on a par with 'Le Monde'. The name came from the Beaumarchais play 'The Marriage of Figaro', in which the title character makes the statement, "Without the freedom to criticise, there is no flattering praise", taken as the motto for the newspaper.

It became a daily newspaper in 1866, and slowly evolved into being the voice of the upper middle class, on the conservative side of the political spectrum.

Answer: Malta

In English, this is 'The Nation'. It is a daily publication, in Maltese, owned by Media.link Communications Company Limited, which is itself owned by the Nationalist Party. The newspaper is therefore centrist or centre-right in its political stance. They also produce the online NETnews.

The opposition Labour Party run One Productions Limited, which focuses on mass media rather than newspapers.

Answer: Italy

With a creative name that means 'The Sheet' (as in a sheet of paper), this daily Roman newspaper was first published in 1996 by the Italian journalist Giuliano Ferrara. While it is generally considered to be politically conservative, it features a number of more left-wing journalists on its staff to provide a range of opinions in their columns.

It also regularly includes editorials and articles inspired by American newspapers such as the 'Wall Street Journal'. 'Il Foglio' is available online as well as in the traditional broadsheet format.

Answer: Faroe Islands

'Dimmalaetting' is the oldest newspaper of the Faroe Islands. Its name means Dawn in Faroese, combining words for darkness and leaving. The name was the brainchild of Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb, the Lutheran minister who created the orthography for modern Faroese.

The first edition appeared on December 8, 1877. In its early years it was published in Danish, with the Danish name of 'Amtstidene for Færøerne' (Official paper for the Faroese), and the Faroese name appended as a subtitle. Between 1920 and 1947 it was published in a mixture of Danish and Faroese, and eventually became a Faroese publication.

The frequency of publication has varied: it started as once a week, then in 1911 twice a week, three times a week in 1970, and five times a week in 1996. Publication ceased temporarily in 2013, but resumed in 2014 as a weekly tabloid.

Answer: Austria

'Die Presse' is a German-language broadsheet first published in Vienna in 1848. Its political stance has traditionally been liberal, in the sense of supporting a free market economy and small government, principles espoused in the Revolution of 1848 which is referenced in the paper's slogan. Nevertheless, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote a series of columns in the 1860s, giving a Marxist perspective on the American civil War, which were later collected into a book.

The editorial staff split in 1864, with some forming the 'Neue Freie Presse', later to become a propaganda tool of the Nazis; it closed in 1939, and after the war 'Die Presse' was re-established.

Answer: Kuwait

Here is another newspaper with a creative name - Al-Anbaa' is Arabic for 'The News'. It was first published in Kuwait City in 1976; publication moved to Cairo, Egypt between August 1990 and August 1991, due to the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. While it still appears in print form, since 2012 the emphasis has shifted to online access, both directly with its own website and via social media.

Despite the fact that it takes a mostly pro-government political stance, it has published items a few times that were controversial enough to lead to temporary closures. Sport always has excellent coverage!

Answer: Switzerland

'Berner Zeitung' is a German-language daily printed in Bern, Switzerland since 1979. It was actually produced as the end stage of mergers involving several older papers: 'Intelligenzblatt' (established in 1834, and renamed 'Berner Tagblatt' in 1888) merged with 'Neu Berner Zeitung' (established 1919) and 'Emmenthaler Nachrichten' (established in 1844), eventually producing 'Berner Zeitung', often just known as 'BZ'.

The name translates literally to 'Journal of Berne', and it is the largest newspaper of the Bern canton. Like most newspapers, it also has an online version.

Answer: Argentina

As the name tells you, this is a 'popular daily' paper, published in the Greater Buenos Aires area. It is aimed at a lower middle class readership, and is pretty much a classic example of yellow press or tabloid journalism: lots of shrieking headlines, scandalous gossip, you get the idea. It was founded in 1974 by Jorge Fascetto with David Kraiselburd as editor-in-chief, and remains a family business, the son of the first editor having taken over when he was murdered by members of a left-wing group who objected to the paper's support of the Peron government.

There is also a paper of the same name published in Asuncion, Paraguay; 'Diário Popular' was published in Lisbon, Portugal between 1942 and 1990; the Peruvian 'Diario el Popular' is available online.

Answer: Malaysia

Founded in 1987, 'Harakah' is the official newspaper of the Malaysian Islamic Party, the PAS. It is written in Malay, with a pull-out English language section. Since 2014, it has also had an online version called harakdaily, although the print version is much less frequent than that.

It was for a long time published twice weekly, before a reduction to twice monthly during the 1990s. In 2012 a PAS conference denounced 'Harakah' as no longer fulfilling its purpose of helping to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state in Malaysia.