The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – 27 October – is a key initiative for both UNESCO and the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) to honour audiovisual preservation professionals and institutions that safeguard our heritage for future generations. Around the world, audiovisual archives join together annually on this day to celebrate their work with events that highlight the vulnerability of these valuable materials and celebrate the often unheralded work of the institutions that provide protection and preservation, ensuring their availability in the future.

Audiovisual materials can tell your story, your truth, and your presence. They provide a window to the world, allowing us to observe events we cannot attend, hear voices from the past who can no longer speak, and craft stories that inform and entertain. By listening to recorded sounds and looking at images captured on film and video, we can appreciate the richness of this culture and learn from it.

To celebrate the 2026 World Day of Audiovisual Heritage, FIAT/IFTA is highlighting this year’s activities of our four commissions.

The Media Management Commission (MMC) published the e-book Changing Sceneries, Changing Roles – Part XII: AI and Human Collaboration: Partners in Archiving?. The publication features selected papers from the latest Media Management Seminar, held in Cardiff, Wales, in May 2025. Video recordings of the sessions are available on our website and YouTube channel.

The MMC also published the results of the 2025 Timeline Survey and launched the 2026 edition of the survey. The findings were presented at the FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026 in São Paulo, Brazil.

In December 2025, members of the Media Studies Commission (MSC) co-edited a special issue of VIEW Journal, exploring creative and experimental approaches to engaging with broadcast archives and writing television history.

As part of the Media Studies Grant, the MSC shared the papers selected through the 2025 call:

• Echoes of Change: Unveiling the Climate Crisis through Historical Narratives in Television Archives of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) (2025), by Dr. Peter Iorper Ugondo (Taraba State University) and Dr. Patience Achakpa-Ikyo (National Open University of Nigeria).
• Revisiting Archival Narratives: The Influence of Women News Anchors on Gender Discourse in the Genesis of Pakistani Television (2025) by Dr. Rabia Noor (Beaconhouse National University).

The MSC also published articles related to the projects selected for the 2026 Media Studies Grant, including interviews, project outlines, and findings from archival research. The proceedings from this year’s call will be shared with the FIAT/IFTA community by the end of the year.

In 2026, the Preservation and Migration Commission (PMC) hosted the first in-person edition of its annual Preservation & Migration Seminar, titled Digital Time: Show me how you do it! Recipes for audiovisual content longevity. Held at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, Ireland, the seminar explored approaches to preservation, migration, and the long-term digital preservation of audiovisual content. The event was co-hosted by DRI and RTÉ.

Video recordings of the sessions are available on our website and YouTube channel.

In May 2026, the Value, Use and Copyright Commission (VUC) hosted an online expert roundtable discussion titled Archives & Ethics: Past Content through Today’s Lens. The discussion explored the complex ethical dilemmas facing archivists and ways to navigate these sensitive challenges.

The full session recording is available on our YouTube channel, while the summary report and the findings of a follow-up survey can be found on our website.

The VUC also published a series of papers and articles on the FIAT/IFTA website:

• Under the #ArchivalReads section, two Rights & Risk case studies were released, featuring CCMA and Sound & Vision
• From Archives to Assets, a summary report analysing the findings of a global survey conducted as part of the Financial Value of Archives project.