I remember last year being amazed at the obvious (and, to me, seemingly excessive) joy and national pride in Malaysia resulting from the Melaka/Georgetown inscription. And, no doubt they have been dancing deep into the night in Praia, Ouagadougou and Bishkek this year!!

But what of elsewhere? The Pontcysyllte inscription announcement came lateish on Saturday. Neither my Sunday nor Monday newspaper in UK (Telegraph) even mentioned the inscription - and I have double checked! And I didn't hear it on National BBC news (I might have missed it when I had the sound turned down to avoid having to listen to Michael Jackson but I don't think so). What does this show?
a. It had been pushed out of the available column inches by all the unjustified Michael Jackson emoting?
b. A lack of interest by the London-centric media of most things happening in the Kingdom away from their immediate access. This might be particularly true as it was a "Welsh" site which succeeded -but Welsh and Scottish candidates usually quickly become "British" as soon as they succeed!
c. A tendency in UK to take such Heritage "accolades" for granted?
d. A worrying lack of interest in heritage matters. But usually one would expect some reference at least to all the "tourism industry" jobs which may be created!
e. Typical UK "phlegm" in face of "success". This might have been the case some years ago but nowadays the press would be expected to go crazy if the National Women's Egg and Spoon Race Team won something!
f. A lack of interest in matters UNESCO
g. UK insularity? Might be true of The Sun but the Telegraph reported reasonably at length on "international" matters such as the Honduran coup in today's edition.

What are forum members noting/experiencing in other "developed" countries this year? I would have expected that Catalonia is very excited about the Tower of Hercules - there seemed, from things like the Web site, to have been a very wide public support and involvement in the nomination. But in "far away" Madrid? Spain already has a very large number of sites - does this increase or diminish interest?

Perhaps Germany isn't a good case this year - no doubt the Wadden See will be widely reported together with Dresden - but positively or negatively? And what about in NL, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium? Or is UK uniquely uninterested! The Google Alerts will give some feel for what is happening but in e.g China Xinhua will hardly be a good reflection of what the average Chinaman in the Street is thinking. Any direct experience from those reading newspapers, watching TV in countries other than UK could be of interest.

The Times

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/archite cture_and_design/article6594604.ece

Guardian did it way back

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/12/artnews.art

Maev did a Friday general piece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jun/26/unesco-world-heritage-sites

Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/aqueduct-named-as-world-heritage-site- 1722668.html

Meanwhile BBC (which does its news regionally) has a video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/8115190.stm

Architect's Journal has a piece

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/5204241.article


An on-line tour

http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/leisure_tourism/Wrexham_Tour/Content/aqueduct_still .htm

The Welsh Assembly sounds happy enough

http://wales.gov.uk/news/topic/culture/2009/090627pontcysyllte/;jsessionid=NhpnKG4QHT fLWgrCTKnsq1FD689Zph3jGZVJvL4xn6S2vbnjGhB4!514291769?lang=en&ts=3

More video (and how to pronounce it)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/localhistory/hidden_histories/episode_1.shtm l

I have searched a few other UK newspapers
The mid range high circulation Mail and Express - nothing I could find on the Web versions
The original high circulation tabloids - The Sun nothing (hardly surprising!) but the Mirror did come up with the slightly jokey/sceptical
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/06/29/wonders-of-the-world-taj-mahal-th e-great-wall-of-china-stonehenge-and-er-the-llangollen-canal-aqueduct-115875-21480063 /

So - of the 4 Quality UK nationals only 2 so far have reported it (Times and Independent). The Guardian has done earlier reports but hasn't (at least on the Web versions) reported the result.
The Scotsman (always a good newspaper!) also reported it.
And the BBC dealt with it as a "regional" matter.

I still feel this says something about UK and its culture/attitudes and would be interested to hear what has happened in other involved European countries

BBC dealt with it nationally, it's simply the way that it does its reporting, in regions. It came up on my national news google page.

The Torygraph seems to have missed a trick. Possibly it says something about the Torygraph and culture.

The Hootsman can be OK, depends on who is doing the reporting.

So did you actually see it reported on any of the BBC National TV news programs on Saturday or Sunday then because I didn't - it was wall to wall Jackson, Murray etc!
That is where the significant editorial decisions about perceived "relevant importance" are made - pages can be created in their thousands on the Web site with almost neutral judgement about their significance.
I can find no mention on ITV or Channel 4 News either

Reactions in the Dutch media on the Wadden Sea:
- Public TV main news was the first to report it on Friday afternoon (earlier than the Unesco website)
- All main newspapers had the news story, and most of them also a background story about a happy agriculture minister and also happy conservation groups, and less enthusiastic locals. It may lead to an economic stimulus for this region is, because of an expected rise in tourist numbers.

Interesting that it was your "Agriculture Minister" who took the accolades. Which department in the NL government is responsible for shepherding nominations - presumably not the Ministry of Agriculture? Was it involved because of the perceived economic boost to the rural economy?

I am surprised that a few more UK ministers didn't take the opportunity to "milk" the success - normally thay aren't backward in coming forward when something which can be presented as "good news" is around. The devolved Welsh dimension involving culture in UK makes it more complicated and means that even more pigs have their noses in the trough - hence the message from First Minister for Wales Rhodri Morgan rather than The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport or the UK Minister for Culture and Tourism or ..... no doubt there are a few more who could have got involved - the Welsh Minister for Heritage for instance (but he had to defer to his First Minister no doubt who wasn't going to pass up such an opportunity) not to mention assorted Ministers for Rural affairs and the Environment. So many tiers of government and so many ministers to achieve so little!

But the Wadden Zee and its islands has a cultural minority aspect too doesn't it with its Friesan connection and their language - is there a Friesan broadcasting channel and Newspaper and was there any Friesan dimension to the nomination and reactions to it?

The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the natural nominations, and the Ministry of Education & Culture for the cultural ones.


At least they've got the taste of success now, and have asked the Culture Minister (responsible for the tentative list) to add the "Eleven Cities" (of speedskating fame) to the new Tentative List in 2010. See this story (in Dutch)