Digital Archive Charter and Broadcast Archive

Abstract

In the light of the Digital Archive Charter, the significance, challenges and solutions for the preservation, publication and utilisation of broadcast archives are discussed. From the Charter's preamble, it confirms the wavering 'authority' of the broadcasting industry and looks at the potential for value creation through the dissemination of broadcast archives. It also considers the 'right to remember for society' through cases of people giving up the use of broadcast archives. The absence of provisions in the Broadcasting Act that relate broadcasters to archives and the tendency of broadcasters to regard archives as 'commercial property' are pointed out, and a draft of soft law for 'public use' with high public interest and non-commercial nature is presented, with proposals for the creation of rules for public access and use.