Tehran, 7 September 2006_

Soudabeh Sadigh (CHN Foreign Desk) -- The joint workshop organized by CHN and UNESCO on the Role of Media in Introducing and Protecting Cultural Heritage continued yesterday evening with the presence of journalists and cultural heritage experts in Tehran. The title of yesterday’s evening workshop was Digital Media and Cultural Heritage, facilitated by members of the Cultural Heritage News Agency (CHN).

 

During this workshop, the participants discussed the important role of mass media in covering cultural heritage news with a focus on digital media. The fast transmission of news and making the news easily accessible to the Internet users all over the world, as well as creating a space for “virtual dialogue” among those who share the same interests to discuss a particular event were brought up as some of the privileges digital media take over the traditional forms of news reporting.

 

The place of cultural heritage in today’s media and the duty of cultural heritage activists and journalists were discussed in this gathering. The representatives of the participant countries in this summit, including Turkey, Tunisia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon, each talked about their own experiences as the journalists who work in cultural and cultural heritage fields and referred to some cases in which the media played an active role to preserve an aspect of their cultural heritage.

 

Dr. Ozgen Acar, Turkish investigative journalist and columnist is Cumhuriyet Newspaper in Ankara, who has spent 36 years in preserving Turkey’s cultural heritage which he categorized as historical, cultural and religious heritage and has made a lot of efforts to get the looted items returned to Turkey, was another participant at this workshop.

 

Considering the successful experience of Turkey in its tourism industry and the challenges this country faced for the developing projects to continue without causing any harm to its cultural, historical, and religious heritage, Dr. Acar explained the role of journalists in preserving cultural heritage sites and making accurate reports on the condition of their cultural heritage sites. He also mentioned the necessity for parallel cooperation between governmental departments with the mass media and journalists for protecting cultural heritage and the effective role NGOs can play in preserving cultural heritage sites.

 

Acar believed that comprehensive and definite regulations should exist for preserving cultural heritage sites and that the parliaments should pass some specific resolutions for protecting cultural heritage and saving them against development projects as well as providing the opportunity for the mass media to be able to spread the accurate news about cultural heritage sites and the threats posed to them as a result of the growth of urbanization, new constructions, and illegal activities.

 

“The best mosques are in Turkey and also the most important churches belonging to Byzantine period are in Turkey and we are responsible toward protecting all of them. They are part of our religious heritage,” said Dr. Acar.

 

In response to a question raised by one of the participants regarding how the new generations could be taught about their cultural heritage and respect their cultural values, Acar said: “This is why we are here to influence public opinion with our news items, with our articles and pictures. We must provide accurate information to train our sons, and grandsons, and the next generations about our cultural heritage.”

 

Dr. Al Gailani Werr, Iraqi archeologists and professor at the British University, stated that cultural heritage does not just belong to the current generations and they should be preserved for next generations as well. “It is their right to have a liaison with their past through the monuments and other cultural evidence left from the past generations,” said Al Gailani. She also pointed to the lack journalists specialized in cultural heritage and said that it is the duty of governments and universities to train more cultural heritage experts including journalists who could safeguard these cultural patrimonies and pass them on to the next generations.

 

Many of the participants at the two-day workshop organized by the Cultural Heritage News Agency in conjunction with UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office believed that the workshops provided a good chance for the people active in cultural heritage fields, especially the journalists, to get to know each other and make use of the experiences of their colleagues in other countries.

 

Following the workshop, the participants were received by H.E. the Turkish Ambassador at the embassy of Turkey in Tehran. The Turkish Ambassador and some diplomatic members of the Turkish Embassy in Tehran, Director of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Director of UNESCO office in Tehran, and CHN managing director met with the invited journalists as well as some representatives from the Iranian press and news agencies at the Turkish embassy in Tehran. Speaking of the positive outcomes of the workshops, all the participants stressed the importance of holding such programs in the regional countries in the future and getting more journalists involved to create a network of cultural heritage journalists, particularly among the Islamic countries, to work hand-in-hand to ensure our cultural heritage is protected in the best way and to accomplish this goal with the help of each other.

 

 

foreigndesk@chn.ir