Reporting heritage destruction

Rouhani, Bijan (ed.)
Finlayson, Bill (ed.)
Clack, Timothy (ed.)

The contributions in this volume, an output of the University of Oxford’s Endangered Cultural Heritage of the Global South (ECHGS) Hub, speak to some fundamental questions about the reporting of heritage destruction: who is reporting, what is being reported and how, and what are the implications of such reporting? Given that cultural heritage can serve as both a trigger and a casualty of conflict, the relentless flow of reporting from news outlets and social media and user-generated content has consequences. The complex and evolving relationships between communities, media, human rights issues and heritage can also serve to endanger and safeguard identities in the present as well as the tangible and intangible legacies of the past. This volume explores these topics through a diversity of perspectives, including from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The collection culminates with the ‘Oxford Recommendations’, an ethical reporting framework recommended for use by journalists and others confronted by such issues.