Libya: bombing, looting; lobbying and churnalism

In the Hindu, journalist Vladimir Radyuhin has reported ‘massive looting of ancient artefacts underway in Libya’. The Hindu has also republished Radyuhin’s (very slightly reworded) news article as an op-ed (opinion) piece, warning that ‘Libyan cultural heritage [is] in danger of going the Iraqi way’.

Radyuhin’s source was ‘a Russian expert on West Asia’, ‘scholar’, ‘orientalist, writer and film maker’ Nikolai Sologubovsky, who had ‘spent several months [April-July] in Libya this year as a correspondent for a Moscow tabloid’.  (Elsewhere, Iranian Press TV journalist Svetlana Tikhomirova credited Nikolay Sologubovsky as a photographer.)

But Radyuhin’s article seems to be churnalism; and the polite word for Sologubovsky’s work would be “lobbying” (while another would be “propaganda”)…

Cultural Heritage Work in Cyprus: DPhil thesis – electronic publication

My DPhil thesis, Interrogating Archaeological Ethics in Conflict Zones: Cultural Heritage Work in Cyprus, has been electronically published.

Conflict Antiquities: Introduction

In this blog, I want to concentrate on illicit antiquities trading, organised crime and political violence in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. I particularly want to consider conflict antiquities. They are just like conflict diamonds, which the United Nations (UN) describe as ‘diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council’.