TORONTO – CBC must stop destroying its “irreplaceable” original radio and television programming after digitizing them, says the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation (CBMF).
According to the charitable foundation, CBC’s English Services has trashed almost a million acetate transcriptions, audio and video tapes, and other legacy master-recordings – or eight decades of Canada’s English-language radio and television history – since the beginning of April, despite pleas from stakeholders such as ACTRA, Actra Fraternal Benefits Society, and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting seeking to preserve them.
The CBMF says the move flies in the face of internationally accepted standards and best practices of audiovisual preservation that call for retention of programming originals due to the unknown characteristics of digitization, such as long-term stability and vulnerability to electromagnetic interference.
“It is truly disturbing that at a time when Canada is finally committed to sustain and support indigenous cultures, it has become the first developed nation to systematically destroy master recordings of its largest audiovisual heritage collection, our English-language radio and television artefacts”, said CBMF’s executive director Kealy Wilkinson, in a statement.
CBMF said that CBC declined a request to delay the process to finalize plans for alternative custody and preservation. It added that Radio Canada intends to preserve its master recordings after making digital copies.
The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation (CBMF) is a not-for-profit charitable foundation working in the public interest to preserve and provide public access to Canada’s history, culture and broadcasting heritage.
