Beirut seeks to include the archives of Lebanon TV on UNESCO's "Memory of the World" list

An employee of Télé du Liban in Beirut screens a tape in the archives section (French)

Lebanon's Ministry of Information is seeking to include the archives of Télé Liban, the oldest in the Arab world, on UNESCO's "Memory of the World" list, in the hope that it will become the third collection of the country of cedars after the Phoenician alphabet and Nahr al-Kalb archaeological paintings on the World Heritage Lists.

Lebanon TV is linked to collective memory, and many Lebanese are nostalgic for the "golden age" that this screen experienced in the sixties and seventies of the last century, until the characters of its comedy and drama entertainment programs became imprinted in the hearts of the majority of those who lived through that era.

Founded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1992, the Memory of the World programme seeks to prevent the loss of documentary heritage, which UNESCO defines as collections of documents of "significant and lasting value, whether paper, audiovisual, digital or in any other format".

"We aspire to record the archives of Lebanon TV, because it is the first television in the Arab world, as well as the Lebanese Radio and the National Agency for Media, Studies and Lebanese Publications," said Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari, who announced this initiative a few days ago, adding, "We de facto have the oldest audiovisual archive in the Arab world."

He explained to AFP that the archive must have "cultural and historical value" to be included on this list.

"We have videos from World War II and the forties," he adds from the Information Ministry building in Beirut, although the cornerstone of television in Tal al-Khayat in Beirut was laid in 1957 and television began operating in 1959.

Archived tapes placed on metal shelves in the archive section of the Lebanese television station (French)

The minister pointed to cooperation with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Institute for Audiovisual Media, saying: "We preserve the archive closely and very seriously."

Collective memory

The ministry will begin preparing the dossier in January, and the file will emphasize "the importance of the archive in collective memory and the cultural impact on the region in which we live," according to the minister, who notes that there is technical assistance from UNESCO in the preparation.

The archive is described as "collective, patriotic and human memory", because "the pinnacle of preserving the humanity of man is the preservation of his history and the preservation of his past as it is".

The archive includes more than 50,<> hours of recorded tapes that store Lebanon's history, including interviews, news, coverage of visits by Arab presidents and kings, and various programs and concerts by Lebanese artists from all over the world, led by "Kawkab Al-Sharq" um Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid Al-Atrash and the French singer Dalida.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay stresses that such a documentary heritage represents "the common memory of humanity and must be protected for research and shared with as many people as possible", because it is "an essential part of our collective history".

An employee walks between the shelves in the archives department of Télévision du Liban (French)

In May, UNESCO announced the inscription of 64 documentary collections in the Memory of the World Register, bringing the total number to 494.

The Nahr al-Kalb archaeological site, 15 kilometers north of Beirut, and the Phoenician alphabet were included in the Memory of the World register in 2005.

The inclusion of the archives of Télévision du Liban on the UNESCO list, if it occurs, would carry "great symbolic and moral significance" and "will give greater cultural value to Lebanon and put our media heritage on the global map," according to the Lebanese minister.

Golden Age

"The golden age of television was in the sixties and seventies, and it was the first television established in the Arab world at the state level," Makari said.

Lebanon TV started broadcasting in black and white, then moved to the color screen and the broadcast was live all the time without any recordings. Lebanon TV was the only local television station in the visual media scene until the first private station was established in 1985.

The archive modernization workshop was launched in 2010 with the efforts of the staff and almost non-existent financial resources.

Alfred Aker, archive director at Télévision du Liban, says a team of 12 people is currently digitizing despite the difficulties of transferring old tapes to modern models.

At the Lebanon TV archive center, where part of the archives are kept in Sin El Fil while the other part is at the television headquarters in Tallet El Khayat, these employees view old videos and transmit their content.

"The television archive includes Lebanese cultural and political life" over the years, Aker added, adding that it is a wealth that "must be saved and preserved, and no other station has such an archive."

Zaven Kouyoumjian, author of two books on the history of television, said: "May God bless your evening. One Hundred Moments Made Television," and another in English about the most prominent stations on Lebanese television, said that Lebanon TV "created the memory of the country and constituted an attempt to bring the Arab world to modernity and modernity."

He adds that television has created "a myth that brought all Lebanese together". Since independence, multi-sectarian and multi-religious Lebanon has suffered many divisions and crises.

TV Archive

The archives of Télé Liban are "the country's national treasure and store Lebanon's cultural identity", he said, noting that the main challenge is not to digitize it, but to put it in the appropriate framework and "link it to the memory of the country".

In light of the stifling economic crisis that Lebanon has been experiencing since 2019, the Minister of Information says that the future of Lebanon TV lies in keeping it away from politics, noting that it must have "a different vision and play a cultural, educational and tourism role."

The website of Télévision du Liban has declined significantly, especially because of the financial crisis afflicting the Lebanese state.

Minister Makari concluded by saying that Lebanon TV represents "a beautiful image of Lebanon", a country whose "past is more beautiful than its present", adding that "the restoration of Lebanon TV its position on the media scene is a mirror of Lebanon's restoration of its role on the world stage."

Source: French