Tag: UNESCO

UNESCO welcomes the establishment of a Global Media Defense Fund, with initial funding by UK and Canada

Stuart Mitchell

The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has warmly welcomed the establishment of a new Global Media Defense Fund at the initiative of the United Kingdom and Canada and their respective pledges of £3 million (US$3,8 M) over five years and of 1 million Canadian Dollars (US$ 765,000) to the Fund. The purpose of the Global Media Fund is to support the UN Plan on the Safety of Journalists, whose implementation is led by UNESCO, which will also administer the Fund. “I wholeheartedly welcome the UK and Canada’s support for our…

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Jodrell Bank added to UNESCO World Heritage List

Stuart Mitchell

Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The observatory becomes the 32nd UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK and joins the prestigious list alongside international sites such as Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. Jodrell Bank, owned by the University of Manchester, is famous as the home of the Lovell Telescope, the world’s third largest steerable radio telescope. Completed in 1957, the dish was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world until 1973 and was…

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UNESCO prizewinner uses AI tool to detect and collect trash worldwide

Stuart Mitchell

Not everything that looks like trash is trash. That was the fundamental challenge when a UNESCO prizewinner from Estonia, the Let’s Do It Foundation, had the idea to create an image-based trash detection system using Artificial Intelligence (AI). In recent months, the laureate of the 2018 UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been busy inventing an algorithm refined enough to distinguish trash in geolocated images and videos. The AI tool called WADE (Waste Detector) has been developed in collaboration with Microsoft and the data science company SIFR.…

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UNESCO promotes underwater archaeology in Latin-America

Stuart Mitchell

The Latin-American and Caribbean region is rich in terms of submerged cultural heritage. Be it the legendary treasure-fleets to Spain, the wrecks of pirate ships that once threatened cities along the coast, or the remains of sacrifices and the religious objects in flooded caves – the region’s waters hold a precious historic legacy. While these sites are incredibly rich in heritage, having the capacity to research and protect them is a challenge for many countries. UNESCO is thus cooperating with the various national authorities in order to increase the underwater…

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“No hate speech” online campaign launched against violent extremism and radicalization of youth

Stuart Mitchell

In June 2019, the Palestinian Centre for Media Research and Development (PCMRD) launched in Hebron the second pillar of the project “Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Media as an effective prevention of violent extremism tool in the hands of the youth”. The five weeks workshop included hands on training in media production.  The sessions for four groups of trainees with some thirty participants from the three universities in Hebron and other youth NGOs, corresponded to the needs expressed to build capacities in media campaigns and in applying new…

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