The audiovisual and sound archive of the State Radio and Television System of any country is considered a Cultural Heritage of the Nation and therefore must be protected and safeguarded.
UNESCO has declared the heritage nature of audiovisual and sound archives for member countries, highlighting the value of the archive as a world heritage site due to the content contained in its records. This declaration was included in the Recommendation on the Safeguarding and Conservation of Moving Images, adopted by UNESCO in October 1980. Likewise, the records of cultural manifestations specific to the nation are considered Intangible Cultural Heritage, already declared or susceptible to be, in accordance with the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage”, adopted by UNESCO in 2003, as well as in the Guidelines for the Safeguarding of Documentary Heritage – Memory of the World, of 2002.
Below, the sections of the documents and the relevance of their adoption to ensure the preservation and conservation of the Television Systems archive are described, with the ultimate objective of promoting the safeguarding of invaluable and irreplaceable documents for the history of the countries:
Recommendation on the safeguarding and conservation of moving images, adopted by UNESCO in October 1980.
There, the member states adhere to different considerations in which audiovisual and sound archives are valued as the heritage of nations, and ensuring their safeguarding is established as the duty of member states.
Any damage inflicted on that heritage is irreversible, and each State has the duty to “adopt appropriate measures for the safeguarding and conservation of moving images taking into account the obligations imposed on them by international law.”
In addition, this document recommends a series of administrative, legal and technical measures where member states are invited to:
• “Take measures whereby officially recognized archives are able to acquire for safeguarding and preservation any part or all of their country’s national production.”
• “Take all the necessary measures in order to safeguard and preserve the moving image heritage, and, where possible, to enhance the technical quality; where the reproduction of moving images is involved, due regard should be given to all the rights in the images concerned”
• “The safeguarding and preservation of all moving images of national production should be regarded as the highest objective. However, until such time as developments in technology make this feasible everywhere, in those cases where it is not possible, for technical reasons of cost or space, to record all publicly broadcast moving images or to safeguard and preserve on a long-term basis all the material deposited, each Member State is invited to establish the principles for determining which images should be recorded and/or deposited for posterity, including 'ephemeral recordings' having an exceptional documentary character. Those moving images which, because of their educational, cultural, artistic, scientific and historical value, form part of a nation’s cultural heritage should be retained on a priority basis. Any system introduced to this end should foresee that selection should be based on the broadest possible consensus of informed opinion and should take particular account of the appraisal criteria established by the archival profession. Furthermore, due care should be taken to prevent the elimination of material until sufficient time has elapsed to allow for the necessary perspective. Material eliminated in this way should be returned to the depositor.”
General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage - Memory of the World, UNESCO 2002
The Memory of the World programme, created in 1992, is conceived with the premise that “the world’s documentary heritage belongs to all, should be fully preserved and protected for all and, with due recognition of cultural mores and practicalities, should be permanently accessible to all without hindrance.”
Among the preservation principles set out in the guidelines, it is worth highlighting:
• Careful documentation and collection control - “good housekeeping” - is a precondition for preservation. Depending on the material in question, the mechanism may be a catalogue, an inventory or some other form of recording the shape and content of a collection down to the level of individual carriers.
• Storage environments – including temperature, humidity, light, air pollutants, animals and insects, physical security - should, as far as possible, be such as will maximize the life of the carriers being stored.
• Conserving an original document and protecting its integrity means that no information is lost, and all future options for preservation and access are kept open. Original documents often have intrinsic worth that will never accrue to a copy.
• Putting long-term preservation at risk in order to satisfy short-term access demand is always a temptation, and sometimes a political necessity, but it is a risk that should be avoided if possible.
“Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage”, adopted by UNESCO in 2003.
The importance of valuing the content of the archive of the State Radio and Television System of Panama within the definition of Intangible Heritage lies in the unique character of the contents that make it up, concerning the records of historical moments for the country recorded in audiovisual and sound supports.
In accordance with the 2003 convention, UNESCO defines intangible heritage as any heritage that must be safeguarded and it means “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.”
In the recommendations of the Convention, states must:
• Article 11:
a) Take the necessary measures to ensure the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage present in its territory
b) Identify and define the various elements of the intangible cultural heritage present in its territory, with the participation of communities, groups and relevant non-governmental organizations..
• Article 13
d) Adopt appropriate legal, technical, administrative and financial measures aimed at:
(...) iii. Establishing documentation institutions for the intangible cultural heritage and facilitating access to them.
• Operational Directives 1.3.- 3
States Parties are encouraged to propose national, sub-regional or regional programs, projects and activities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.
The archive managed by the Television systems has special conditions and no representative antecedents that are comparable to it, so, to the guidelines cited above, the obligations at the head of each channel derived from the regulations of each country must be added.