Télé Liban’s archives enter UNESCO’s memory of the world

For decades, Télé Liban has been a witness. From the country’s earliest televised moments in 1958 to wars, elections, cultural milestones, and everyday life, its archive has quietly preserved Lebanon as it unfolded, fragmented, resilient, unfinished.

Now, that memory is seeking global recognition. Last week, Lebanon submitted Télé Liban’s audiovisual archive for nomination to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, a program dedicated to protecting documentary heritage of universal value. If accepted, Télé Liban’s archive would officially join a global collection that includes humanity’s most significant written, visual, and recorded records, placing Lebanon’s story within the world’s collective memory.

Télé Liban’s archive documents Lebanon’s political life, cultural production, artistic expression, and social transformations across more than six decades. It captures presidents and poets, wars and weddings, protests and performances. It is one of the few remaining continuous audiovisual records of a country whose history has often been interrupted, rewritten, or erased.

What is UNESCO’s “Memory of the World”?

The program was created precisely for such cases. Unlike World Heritage sites, which protect physical locations, the register safeguards fragile documents: films, recordings, manuscripts that risk disappearing without institutional commitment. Inclusion signals that a nation’s memory is not only worth saving for itself, but for humanity at large.

In recent years, Télé Liban’s archive has undergone a major digitization effort, supported by UNESCO’s Beirut office and the Aleph Foundation. Thousands of hours of footage have been restored, catalogued, and converted into digital formats, an essential step in ensuring that Lebanon’s past remains accessible to future generations.

Why this moment matters

In an age of fragmented media, misinformation, and algorithm-driven narratives, public archives play a critical role in anchoring national memory in documented fact. Télé Liban’s archive offers context where headlines often fail, continuity where social media thrives on immediacy.

The nomination is the recognition that Lebanon’s memory, despite decades of crisis, is still intact enough to be preserved, still rich enough to matter, and still worthy of being shared with the world. As Lebanon continues to search for recovery, this nomination suggests a meaningful truth: before rebuilding the future, a country must first decide that its past is worth saving.