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Recommendation 2001 (2012) Final version
Protection of and access to the audiovisual cultural heritage
1. Culture is an element of crucial
importance in our societies. Through cultural education, individuals
and communities are able to fully comprehend, appreciate, respect
and enjoy human rights and democracy.
2. Today, cultural education takes place largely through the
media. Audiovisual media provide a good basis for common cultural
experiences of the public at large. However, old films and recordings
are vanishing due to their material fragility. With the advent of
digital media, new means have appeared for preserving and accessing
audiovisual material. At the same time, the production of audiovisual
material has been increased by user-generated material on the Internet.
As the sheer volume of audiovisual material makes it impossible
to preserve it all, appraising, selecting and sampling such material
will increasingly become a key element for preserving the audiovisual
cultural heritage.
3. The copyright of audiovisual material may in some cases restrict
its distribution through the Internet. It is important that the
interests of authors, performers and other rights holders are recognised
when seeking satisfactory solutions to permit wide public access
to audiovisual material. Specific attention should be paid to educational
and research purposes which are permitted under copyright law.
4. Welcoming such initiatives as the European Commission’s “European
Film Gateways” and the Internet library project “Europeana”, the
Parliamentary Assembly recognises the need for establishing networks
of public and private institutions active in the audiovisual heritage
in Europe. The Assembly also notes commercial projects such as the
Google Book Library Project, but emphasises that guaranteeing the
diversity of the audiovisual heritage may also require public support,
especially where audiovisual material does not appeal to a sufficiently
large and commercially important group of viewers.
5. The Assembly supports such national initiatives as the National
Audiovisual Institute (Ina) in France, the “Memoriav” association
for the preservation of the audiovisual heritage in Switzerland
and the German “Kinemathek” museum for film and television. More
member States should follow these examples and set up public audiovisual
archives, libraries and museums.
6. All Council of Europe member States should make an inventory
of their audiovisual cultural heritage and protect it at national
and, where appropriate, regional levels, and they must develop strategies
for easier and more sustainable access to their audiovisual cultural
heritage.
7. As the importance of traditional public libraries with printed
books is declining, public authorities should develop and expand
audiovisual libraries, which may be accessible to users in library
buildings or through the Internet. As is usual for libraries, copyright
might be limited to educational and research purposes under national
law.
8. Public service broadcasters and production companies have
generated large quantities of audiovisual material and hold a vast
collection of archives of the audiovisual heritage. This material
is of considerable value to the public. Every effort should be made
to overcome outstanding copyright issues and to ensure that authors, performers
and other rights holders receive fair and proper reward for their
work while ensuring that such material is also, wherever possible,
both preserved and made publicly available through archives. The Assembly
urges that consideration be given to arrangements which ensure that
the audiovisual heritage is not permanently hidden from public view,
but is properly recorded and preserved with a view to professional preservation
and possible public display.
9. Some schools have set up media competency training for pupils.
Such training should be enlarged and material which is considered
part of the audiovisual cultural heritage should be used for educational
and research purposes.
10. The Assembly emphasises the importance accorded by the European
Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage (ETS No.
183) and its Protocol on the Protection of Television Productions
(ETS No. 184) to the protection of audiovisual material for our
societies in Europe. The ratification of these instruments by all
member States should be sought. However, technological developments
may call for new specific rules.
11. The Assembly believes that a second protocol to the European
Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage would
help member States to make the audiovisual cultural heritage accessible
through audiovisual archives and libraries. Such a protocol would
strengthen the protection of the audiovisual cultural heritage through
public audiovisual libraries and help States to understand the possibilities
of using copyright-protected audiovisual material for educational
and research purposes.
12. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
12.1. call on the member States which
have not yet done so to sign and ratify the European Convention for
the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage and its Protocol on the
Protection of Television Productions;
12.2. instruct its competent steering committee to study the
feasibility of drawing up a second protocol to the European Convention
for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage, which could help
States in setting up public audiovisual libraries by establishing
a system of appraising, selecting or sampling audiovisual material
to be made accessible for educational and research purposes;
12.3. invite its competent steering committee to develop guidelines
for ensuring access to the audiovisual heritage for people with
disabilities, for instance by adding subtitles or sign language
for the hearing impaired and additional soundtracks for the visually
impaired;
12.4. having regard to the memorandum of understanding signed
between the Council of Europe and the European Broadcasting Union,
invite the latter to develop, in partnership with the Council of
Europe, joint strategies and concrete action for the protection
of audiovisual material held by public service broadcasters in Europe
and to facilitate access to this material.