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. 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. The online newspaper launched its Chinese version in 2019, having previously been published in English and Russian only.
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. A member of the Russian State Duma supported the blocking, saying that the article expressed "degeneration and decay". The newspaper actively tries to bypass the blockade. The case was widely covered by other outlets. On February 18, 2025,
The Barents Observer was declared an
undesirable organization by the
Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. == References ==