The EBU, along with Austrian Member ORF, is helping Serbian Public Radio (RTS) build a comprehensive digital archive and workflow.

A team of experts were sent out to Belgrade on 31 March to make recommendations on how to best preserve and digitalise the RTS repository.

Christoph Bauer (ORF Chief Archivist), Hans Hoffmann (EBU Head of Media Production Technology) and Radka Betcheva (EBU Partnership Programme Senior Project Manager) met with RTS's management, head archivist and technical director during a visit to the premises and an assessment of the facilities.

The experts are now drafting a report, which will include detailed recommendations for development of an archival strategy that will serve RTS for the foreseeable future and make use of partner institutions, such as universities, libraries, museums.

This support is being carried out through the EBU Partnership Programme in the framework of an EBU-EU project for support of public service media in the EU accession countries.

The EBU and ORF will continue its support to RTS in future phases.

The EBU Partnership Programme is organising a regional conference on archiving in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia, from the 23 to 24 April. The meeting will gather chief archivists from public service media in the Balkan region, EBU Member broadcasters ORF and DR, and other international organisations, such as the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), International Federation of Television Archives (IFTA).