The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

PRESS AND MEDIA ARCHIVES - The Archives of the Hungarian Television by Anikó Józsa

By Anikó Józsa: The Role of the Archives in Civil Television Preserving television programmes We need a consistent conception in forming the archives, for keeping the material in order and so as not to lose any material of potential value. The archived material needs continuous protection for the purpose of operation and culture. It is the most important task of public television. Only the Hungarian Television Archives are able to hold cultural material of the last decades. Developing and protection of holdings The Archives look after the recorded material of television and programmes that have to be archived, they try to protect quality and renewal of the former programmes. It performs following tasks upon definite functions: Value protection, storing, writing up, renewal Support of making programmes Support of broadcast .Research The Archive is responsible for treating documents and database in order to communicate with the other archives and registers. The questions are the following: if the collection of television programmes is part of the cultural and historical legacy, are they exclusively for enjoyment, can they be researched by anybody and are they a source used for making programmes? These two contradictory demands can be reconciled and solved with new and appropriate technology. Application for research According to our plans in the future applications for research can be sent online. Until then the closed downloaded RTF documents can be used. The archives of the Hungarian Television contain a unique collection of history, arts, culture and television and supporting TV programmes; it also functions as a national archives so it can be considered as an integral part of our national cultural heritage. The history of television is the same as the history of making programmes amidst society's changing conditions. The first broadcast was aired on 1

st May 1957 During this period there was only one broadcast a day and air time was very brief. We were only able to watch live broadcasts of news, sporting events, theatre performances and films. The first newsreel was broadcast on 2

nd July 1957 The Editorial Staff of News Reel preserved each recorded interview for the archives ;the texts of these interviews have been recorded on microfilms ever since 1

st January 1959. Because of the increasing quantity of the programmes, it was decided in 1959, that a more systematic approach was needed for the collection of broadcast