The inscription of Qhapaq Ñan on UNESCO’s World Heritage List: a comparative perspective from the daily press in six Latin American countries

Abstract

In June 2014, UNESCO inscribed the Andean roadway system Qhapaq Ñan on the World Heritage List, the first time six countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) had submitted a petition in common for the same cultural site. The article reviews ninety articles published in prominent Latin American newspapers and concludes that an average reader is likely to have been largely misinformed on the complexity of issued involved in the inscription of a cultural site on the World Heritage List (WHL). Newspapers showed little eagerness to present a diversity of opinions to their readers, rarely conducting their own investigation among the local communities along Qhapaq Ñan. True to what could be expected from a media landscape that favours a ‘market-driven’ form of journalism, newspapers eschewed most topics of controversy and showed a low level of autonomy from official discourses. They largely relayed the authorised heritage discourse that favours expert and official declarations and emphasises monumentality over contemporary and alternative practices related to heritage. The commodification of heritage through the development of the tourism industry is of greater concern for these publications than technical considerations about conservation or the participation of local communities (whose voices are silenced) in the listing process.

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