The Original Exception of TeleCapodistria. An Italian TV Station in Yesterday’s Yugoslavia and Today’s Slovenia

This essay examines the archival dimension of TeleCapodistria (TVC), a Yugoslav television channel (1971–1991) designed to serve Italy’s Istrian minority while promoting socialist identity, with a focus on strategies, challenges, and initiatives for preserving and valorizing its documentary heritage. TVC’s archives, comprising multilingual broadcasts, sports coverage, alternative foreign affairs analyses, and cultural programming, reflect its dual role as a minority broadcaster and Cold War cultural diplomacy tool. Key challenges include technological obsolescence, necessitating continuous re-archiving, and the complexities of managing a multilingual corpus that bridges Italian, Slovenian, and Yugoslav contexts. The analysis highlights strategies such as digitalization efforts, cataloguing methodologies, and the development of user-friendly interfaces to enhance accessibility. Archival materials, including films censored in Italy and live sports broadcasts, illustrate TVC’s role in subverting Italy’s media monopoly. Initiatives like anniversary retrospectives and satellite broadcasting expansions (2006-2009) demonstrate ongoing efforts to leverage archival content for public engagement. The study underscores the importance of integrating archival intelligence into research practices, addressing barriers like jargon and hierarchical fonds structures. By situating TVC’s archival management within broader European audiovisual preservation debates, the essay illuminates its significance for understanding media pluralism, minority representation, and transnational broadcasting during the Cold War.