World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage was established by UNESCO in 2005: to commemorate the passing in 1980 of special guidelines on the protection of movable pictures; as a mechanism to raise general awareness of the need for urgent measures to be taken; and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents as an integral part of national identity. These artefacts include films, radio and TV programmes, and audio and video recordings. Mass spread of such documents started in the 20^th century; today, they are major original information sources. They help overcome cultural boundaries and are equally well comprehended aurally both by visually literate and illiterate people.