About
Iran’s Cultural Heritage News Agency (CHN) was inaugurated in 2002 as the only specialized and independent news agency active in the areas of culture and cultural heritage at a time when issues from this specialized domain were not taken seriously or covered extensively by the Iranian media.
However, after only four years since its inauguration, concepts such as intangible and natural heritage, the need to preserve and renovate historical monuments, preserving national and geographical identity, the important role of museums and archeological remains, revival of handicrafts as well as other topics related to tourism have become familiar subjects not only for the Iranian officials and the media, but also for the general public to a very large extent. All of these activities resulted in CHN being announced in Tehran’s Press Exhibition 2006 as the best news agency of the country for the second time.
    Following UNESCO’s educational workshops and meetings which were held to register the intangible heritage of the Middle Eastern countries in UNESCO’s list of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, CHN was introduced in the final protocol as one of the top three news agencies in the region for the best coverage of intangible heritage news. Later, thank to CHN’s continuous follow-ups, the government and parliament of Iran finally ratified Iran’s proposal to join UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage. 

   These activities resulted in announcing CHN as “the first news agency for cultural heritage in the world … [which] can play an important role in the field of news and communication for tourism and cultural heritage …”[1] during the recent Expert Group Meeting of the OIC[2] Member States on Tourism which was held in Tehran on July 2005.

   This announcement further encouraged this news agency to expand the area of its activities such that presenting the news in other languages besides Persian and English were placed high on CHN’s agenda. Initial steps taken to design Arabic and French webpages well confirm this claim. It is necessary to emphasize here that CHN’s Arabic website is intended to cover news related to Islamic culture and civilization especially topics related to cultural heritage and tourism of the Islamic countries.
    It is important to note that one of the most important concerns of this news agency has always been elevating the level of knowledge and experience of its journalists in particular and other Iranian and regional journalists in general. For this reason, in addition to the different and diverse workshops and educational sessions in related areas held for its journalists, CHN has decided to hold joint educational workshops with the international organizations. Therefore, following the singing of a memorandum of understanding between CHN and UNESCO, an educational workshop under the title of “Globalization, conflict and cultural heritage: The role of the Media in introducing and protecting cultural heritage” was held in Iran in which representatives from regional Muslim countries’ media and a large number of photographers participated.
    At present, more than 100 journalists and photographers are active in this news agency, covering news related to culture, cultural heritage, and tourism.
  Cultural Heritage, Tourism, World News, Photo Agency, Urban and Architectural News, Special Pages, and Audio Section comprise all the activities of Iran’s Cultural heritage News Agency.

[1] Article 1.1.9 of the “Means and Modalities of Implementation for OIC- Plan of Action in the Field of Tourism” adopted by OIC Member States during their First Expert Group Meeting in July 2005, Tehran.

[2] Organization of the Islamic Conference
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