AFP: UNESCO Conference Tackles Disinformation, Hate Speech. “Participants at a global U.N. conference in France’s capital on Wednesday urged the international community to find better safeguards against online disinformation and hate speech.”
Associated Press: Ukraine’s Odesa city put on UNESCO heritage in danger list. “The United Nations’ cultural agency decided Wednesday to add the historic center of Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa to its list of endangered World Heritage sites, recognizing ‘the outstanding universal value of the site and the duty of all humanity to protect it.’ The decision was made at an extraordinary session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in Paris.”
University of Texas at Austin: ‘Information and Elections in the Digital Era’: Knight Center and UNESCO launch self-directed online course in four languages. “A multilingual course in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish that looks at the impact of the digital era on global elections is now available to take at any time, from anywhere around the world.”
AFP: Ukraine seeks UNESCO cultural protection for Odessa. “Ukraine’s government will ask the UN’s cultural watchdog to add the historic port of Odessa to its World Heritage List of protected sites as Russia’s invasion continues, the agency said Tuesday. Russian forces have advanced to within several dozen kilometres (miles) of the city, which blossomed after empress Catherine the Great decreed in the late 18th century that it would be Russia’s modern gateway to the Black Sea.”
UNESCO: UNESCO fights harmful content with a community-led initiative. “On 28-29 June, UNESCO in collaboration with the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) held a public conference and a roundtable discussion (closed session) in Jakarta on ‘Addressing Gaps in Regulating Harmful Content Online’. These were organized within the framework of the UNESCO project Social Media 4 Peace, in an attempt to respond to the rising hate speech and disinformation globally that have contributed to divisions in society and real-world violence.”
BBC: Borsch soup in Ukraine added to Unesco endangered heritage list. “The UN’s cultural agency has added the cooking of borsch – a soup usually made with beetroot and potatoes – in Ukraine to its list of endangered intangible cultural heritage. Unesco said the war in Ukraine had ‘threatened’ the cooking of borsch.”
Museums+Heritage: 12 museums among cultural sites damaged or destroyed in Ukraine confirms UNESCO . “According to a new count, 152 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed since the beginning of the war. Last week UNESCO published an updated assessment of the damage caused to cultural sites in Ukraine since 24 February 2022, when the Russian offensive began. According to the checks carried out by its experts, 152 cultural sites have been partially or totally destroyed as a result of the fighting, including 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums, seven libraries and 70 religious buildings.”
UNESCO: Ukraine: UNESCO launches programme to support Ukrainian artists. “UNESCO will provide financial support to Ukrainian artists to support the continuation of artistic creation and access to cultural life, under a pilot programme launched by the Organization in partnership with the Ukrainian NGO Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).”
Archinect: UNESCO releases a new list of damaged cultural sites across Ukraine. “The organization has verified that 139 sites have suffered damage since that time, a combined total of 62 religious sites, 12 museums, 26 historic buildings, 17 cultural buildings, 15 monuments, and 7 libraries, including the Babyn Yar Holocaust remembrance site in Kyiv, which have come under Russian bombs and artillery shells as the conflict shifts from a three-pronged invasion to a more targeted offensive focused in the eastern Donbas region.”
Baltic Times: Lithuanian minister in Kyiv: ‘absurd’ that Russia chairs UNESCO heritage committee. “Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, who is visiting Kyiv on Friday, described as absurd the situation where Russia, which waging war in Ukraine and destroying the country, is chairing UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.”
AFP: UNESCO meeting in Russia on world heritage postponed indefinitely. “A meeting of the U.N. cultural agency’s World Heritage Committee scheduled to have been hosted by Russia in June has been postponed indefinitely, a source said Thursday, after weeks of intense diplomatic wrangling prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
IFL Science: Project Aims To Digitally Preserve Ukraine’s Landmarks And Artifacts Threatened By War. “Called ‘Backup Ukraine,’ the non-profit project is in partnership with the Danish National Committee of the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Blue Shield Denmark, Polycam, and a VICE media group Using the Polycam app, people can capture data of cultural heritage relics and sites using their camera, then use the app to create three-dimensional renderings of the works, digitally preserving them away from the bombs and missiles.”
The Art Newspaper: Unesco under pressure to pull world heritage meeting from Russia. “Unesco is facing growing calls to relocate its next World Heritage Committee session from Kazan, Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine. Organisations such as the European heritage advocacy group Europa Nostra and the UK culture minister, Nadine Dorries, say that Russia should be blocked from hosting the annual meeting at which the list of World Heritage sites is approved. This year’s event is scheduled from 19 to 30 June under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation.”
Reuters: World heritage at risk amid Ukraine war, UNESCO says. “Dozens of valuable churches, historical sites and museums have been damaged by the war in Ukraine, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on Friday, adding that it was particularly worried about the northern city of Chernihiv…. UNESCO’s first, preliminary list of totally or partially damaged sites featured 29 religious sites, 16 historical buildings, four museums and four monuments, it said.”
New York Times: UNESCO will send body armor to Ukrainian journalists.. “The United Nations’ cultural agency said on Thursday that it was sending body armor and helmets to Ukraine to help protect Ukrainian journalists, many of whom have gone from covering local news to suddenly becoming war correspondents. At least four journalists, including a Ukrainian, have been killed covering the fighting since Russia began its invasion last month.”
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