22-11-2013

Poland Funds Digital Literacy Project

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    WARSAW: Polish public broadcaster TVP has received state funding to coordinate a new project aimed at making public media available to everyone.

    The National Broadcasting Chamber and 19 public media units in Poland signed a letter of intent to create the Public Media Digital Library. The Library will act as a platform for the exchange of audiovisual materials including films, first between public television and radio broadcasters such as TVP, Polish Radio and regional TV units, and later on as a prime source of content for outside users. The second phase of the project will be possible when all legal issues concerning copyrights have been resolved, which poses a difficult challenge especially in case of broadcasts and movies made in Poland before 1994 when the Law on Copyright and Related Rights was introduced by the Polish Government.

    The program will be coordinated by TVP. The National Broadcasting Chamber assigned special funds coming from the TV and Radio fees for this specific goal. TVP President Juliusz Braun said that the content that will be digitalized and held within the Library consists of over 1.5 million broadcasts, 900 of which are currently stored in the local branches of TVP. The public broadcaster will coordinate the technical and functional documentation of the audiovisual and radio materials along with a specially created Opinion Committee that will include representatives of the Ministry of Administration and Digitization of Poland and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The project is a part of  the Broad Agreement on Digital Skills in Poland introduced in July 2013 by the Minister of Administration and Digitalization Michał Boni and Leader of Digitalization in Poland Włodzimierz Marciński in order "to improve digital literacy among recognition of its crucial role in Poland's development."