The document discusses the challenges faced by the documentation department of TV3, a Catalan public television channel, in documenting and archiving the large volume of materials generated from the 4-month long live broadcast and journalistic coverage of the trial of Catalan independence leaders at the Spanish Supreme Court. The department established workflows and indexing systems to organize the live broadcasts, news programs, raw footage, social media posts, and other materials for archiving and future retrieval. Their efforts ensured comprehensive coverage and documentation of this historic legal event.

1. 1
Never-ending story.
How to survive the documentary treatmentof a long-lasting event from
an archival point of view
Teresa Ibars
Documentalist for TV3, Televisió de Catalunya
tibars.w@ccma.cat
Noel Reyes
Chief of News and Sports. TVC Documentation
nreyes.v@ccma.cat
ABSTRACT
Television is considered to be short-term perspective, it has an immediate effect.
Everything happens quickly and once it fades, it vanishes. The reality only lasts for a
moment. But, what happens when there is a relevant event broadcast live over a long
period of time? How does the documentary treatment affect?
And even more, how to deal with that event if it is shown through different broadcast
channels: television, social networks, radio, web… and receives a differentiated
treatment from the diversity of our television programs (informative, documentaries,
magazines, gatherings, humour programs, entertainment..).
The political trial, that has been issued for 4 months (from February to June 2019) and
that has been seen for sentencing, has put our Documentation Department to the test. It
has already ended and we have survived dealing with the different materials and signals
that the event has produced: (live broadcast, raw material, edited news, connections,
tweets, press kit, interactive website...).
We would like to explain from the documentary analysis point of view the different
treatment of these materials in our Archives.
Keywords: Process Case * Catalonia * Audiovisual Archive * Television Archive *
Audiovisual Documentation * Televisió de Catalunya * TV3

2. 2
INTRODUCTION
When we talk about a never-ending story, we are referring to the 4 frantic months of
the live broadcast and all the journalistic and documentary treatments generated by the
Catalan independence process trial at the Spanish Supreme Court.
TV3, the Catalan public television channel, gave extensive special news coverage to this
historic trial involving 10 politicians from the legitimate Catalan government and 2
leaders of social organisations, accused of 3 offences of rebellion, sedition and
misuse of public funds for holding the referendum on 1 October 2017 and its political
consequences.
The trial consisted of 52 morning and afternoon sessions: a total of 274 hours, 39
minutes and 45 seconds. It involved: 426 witnesses to the events, 18 technical
experts and about 350 pieces of documentary evidence submitted by 18 defence
lawyers, 4 prosecutors, 2 State lawyers and 2 private prosecutors, with a total of
1,834 sheets drafted by the defence attorney and 127 sheets reported by the
prosecution.
That’s a lot of figures!
And, of course, the TV3 Documentation Department has taken charge of the search
(before, during and after the trial), analysing, documenting and archiving all the material
generated by our channel’s news and entertainment programmes. We have done it all
and we have survived!

3. 3
CONTEXT
My country is so small
that when the sun goes to bed
it’s never really sure it has seen it.
That’s what the song says. In Catalonia, we feel the movement of tectonic plates, but we
feel political and social movements even more. When they affect the elected government
or social organisations or the people themselves, it is not surprising that great
expectation is created.
This trial has involved the entire Government of Catalonia, the speaker of the Catalan
Parliament and two social associations that include a large number of Catalan people.
And the charges concern events that many people experienced themselves, in the
streets.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
Like so many other territories, Catalonia has historically fought for its independence. In
the last few years, this desire has become a stronger demand in the streets and this has
been translated into a pro-independence parliamentary majority.
The charges place the “criminal acts” on very specific dates.
On 6 September 2017, the Parliament of Catalonia approved the ReferendumAct
and the Government of Catalonia called the referendum to ask about the independence
of Catalonia for 1 October. The Spanish State complained it and the judicial institutions
cancelled the procedure.
On 20 September 2017, a huge police and judicial operation took place. Various
Government offices were police registered and officials were arrested, accused of
preparing the referendum for 1 October. That day, thousands of people, spontaneously,
pored into the streets to protest and gathered in front of one of these offices, the
headquarters of the Department of the Economy. Because of the large size of the
demonstration, the ANC (Catalan National Assembly)1
and Òmnium Cultural2
took
1
The Catalan National Assembly,the heir to the movementfor non-binding independence referendums.
2
Non-profitorganisation founded in 1961 working to promote the Catalan language and culture,education,
social cohesion and the defence of Catalonia’s national rights.

4. 4
responsibility for it. The leaders of both associations are accused of sedition and have
been in remanded in custody since 16 October 2017.
On the morning of 1 October 2017, the ballot boxes arrived at the polling stations and
people began preparing to vote, but the State security forces, together with the Catalan
police force (Mossos d’Esquadra), had a court order to prevent the referendum. The
Spanish National Police force and Civil Guard began police registers to confiscate the
ballot boxes, and they make baton charges at various polling stations. At the end of the
day the results were given, with a turn-out of approximately 2,300,000 people – 43.03%
of the electoral roll of 5,313,564 people – and with a result clearly in favour of YES.
On Friday 27 October 2017, the Parliament of Catalonia agreed, by a large majority, to
urge the Government of Catalonia to apply the effects of the declaration of
independence, to open a constituent process to negotiate with the Spanish government
and to ask the international community to intervene to end the violation of civil rights.
At the same time, the Spanish Senate approved the application of article 155 of the
Spanish Constitution in Catalonia. Among other measures, this involved the dismissal
of the Catalan government, intervention by the Spanish government in the Catalan
administration and the calling of elections in Catalonia for December 21th.
On Monday 30 October 2017, a charge of rebellion was brought against the Catalan
government and the pro-independence members of the Bureau of the Parliament.
Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and other ministers left for Brussels. The other
members of the government attended court and were remanded in custody on
November 2nd.
And all this happened in Catalonia, with a population of 7.5 million...
On 12 February the trial of the 12 defendants began at the Supreme Court in Madrid,
presided over by Judge Manuel Marchena. The court decided that the trial should be
public and broadcasted.
There is no precedent in recent Spanish or European history for a trial for rebellion,3
and
the fact that it was broadcasted generated great anticipation among the media, which
wanted to report and cover it.
3
https://www.publico.es/politica/tribunales/proces-juicio-proces-sera-televisado.html

5. 5
The figures say it all: 600 accredited journalists at the Supreme Court in Madrid, 150 of
whom were from foreign media. TVC had an average audience share of more than 17%.
And we were there.
SPECIAL CCMA COVERAGE
The Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA) stands for the Catalan
public audiovisual corporation, consisting of four television channels, the group of radio
broadcasters, as well as the digital content generated by these channels, and a staff of
about 2,000 employees. Despite the limited resources, the company had the
determination to inform, cover the trial and to provide context in all our media, all day
long with all the possible means available.
BROADCAST
⮚ TV3 television channel: worked as a single newsroom to supply the news and
entertainment programmes that report the trial.
⮚ 324, 24 hours news television channel: broadcast of the whole trial, uncut and
with no voices off. Innovative infographics4
(an inverted L shape) were developed
providing context at all points in the trial.
⮚ Catalunya Ràdio: specific podcast (free on Spotify, iTunes and iVoox) and for
following the event, including the most important moments in its coverage.
⮚ Youtube: broadcast of the entire trial.
WEB
⮚ 324.cat: following the trial minute by minute and streaming all the sessions.
Creation of the “Keys to the Trial” – an interactive pocket guide to the whole legal
process in Catalan, Spanish and English.
SOCIAL MEDIA
⮚ Social network: updated information on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
⮚ Mobile applications: daily summary via WhatsApp and Telegram, with
information on the schedule in the morning and a compilation of the day’s
headlines at night.
4
Used for programme aboutBrexit on BBC in June 24th 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TmUP1StPf0

6. 6
DOCUMENTARY AND INDEXING TREATMENT
PRELIMINARY
As preparation, in the autumn of 2018, the Documentation Department held various
meetings to agree, a priori, how to work during and after the trial; how to handle and
archive the materials generated; what tools could be developed to give the newsroom
and the archive a better service; and what we could add in order to do our everyday work
even better.
TEAM
It was decided to work with specialist documentalists (legal training was even given)
who would work almost exclusively on the selection, treatment and indexing of the
materials resulting from the trial, as well as providing a search service.
One part of this group dealing with the core materials related to the case before,
during and after the trial and helping with all related searches.
PRIOR SEARCHES
IMAGES: preparation of material with all the iconic or emblematic footage so it was
accessible online ordered in folders ready for the trial coverage.
We looked for pictures of the leading figures (judges, defendants, prosecutors, defence
lawyers, witnesses, etc.), we prepared general images of locations where we predicted
things would happen (prisons, Supreme Court) and we made a chronology in images of
the events in question.
PRESS SECTION: drew up dossiers with the chronology of the process, information
about the judges, official trial documents (written accusations, defence, instruction
phase) and articles about the judicial process.
Whentrial began, we expanded these dossiers with opinions and interviews with experts,
news items resulting from the trial from Spanish and international newspapers.
At the moment all these dossiers are still being updated.
JUDICIAL FILE: the Newsroom, together with Documentation department, drew up a file
with details of the case (who is who, phases of trial, offences and penalties demanded)
taking into account the specific nature of the judicial subject matter.

7. 7
DIGITAL APP: the Digital Media team, together with the Digital Newsroom, prepared a
digital app “Keys to the Trial”5
in three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) to offer
information including basic details of the trial (who is who, the phases of the trial -we are
no experts in legal issues–; the legal penalties and a chronology).
Documentation provided support for the app in the form of:
a) Searching for photographs of the main characters.
b) Checking and verifying the information written by journalists on the
chronology, accusations and penalties demanded, in order to prevent mistakes
or inaccuracies.
c) Link to the press dossiers made in advance.
All this information and these pictures were used during the trial to inform the audience
in a simple but detailed way – the inverted L – about specific aspects at all times (the
phase of the trial we were at, who was giving evidence, etc.).
THESAURUS
The team agreed to set up the descriptor PROCESS CASE and established the basic
keywords:
MADRID or BARCELONA * TRIAL * INDEPENDENCE PROCESS * CATALONIA *
PROCESS CASE
+ keywords of the relevant people
+ keywords STATEMENT or WITNESSES when necessary.
The headings were also decided:
Supreme Court: Process Trial: news item headline for edited item
Supreme Court: Process Trial: DAY1 morning / afternoon: headline for raw
INDEXING SECTION
All images came in through the Documentation Indexing Section in the Newsroom,
the entrance point where the documentalists distributed them for broadcast and
organised folders (by months, by days and by types of materials) for receiving and
placing all materials concerning the trial based on the digital working environment.
5
https://www.ccma.cat/324/keys-catalan-independence-trial/

8. 8
TYPE OF MATERIAL AND DOCUMENTARY TREATMENT
BROADCAST
Witness broadcast. Archives kept a copy of the live broadcasts of the court’s morning
and afternoon sessions and the material on channel 324 (24h news channel) which was
not strictly a broadcast of the trial, but which was related to it, with interviews and
connections.
In the broadcast of the trial is a literal transcript in the language spoken (Spanish) which
is the original, and afterwards the automatic translation into Catalan, the working
language on TVC and in our MAM System.
� Indexation = Title + Summary + Keywords + Segments with Subtitles in Catalan
PROGRAMMES
There were also news or entertainment programmes: considering there were other more
detailed materials, we did not make a very exhaustive analysis of these. Each
programme was treated in a different way.
LIVE TRANSMISSION
This is the clean feed of the trial provided and produced by the Supreme Court, and TVE
is only the pool signal.
Segments were generated automatically with subtitles. These subtitles were the product
of the very important work done by the transcription team following a special method
designed by TVC, consisting of five people rotating and transcribing all the sessions
verbatim. This method proves fewer errors than speech-to-text (80% reliability), bearing
in mind that the vocabulary is legal, ancient and archaic. Thesesubtitles were compacted
to three minutes in the Segment field and the text was revised. The name and job title
of the person involved at all times was added.
Apart from the literal transcription, a second level of work was carried out with a
description of the images and the notable visual moments or those considered
appropriate to highlight (clashes, unusual, curious details, etc.), with TAGS for
recovering them quickly. E.g.: GAGS, VIDEO DISPLAYED, PROTEST,
INTERRUPTION.
� Indexation = Title + Summary + Keywords + Segments with literal transcription
+ Segments (in bold) with details related to description images or textual
description.
This material was linked to the daily broadcast.

9. 9
EDITED ITEMS
These are all of the edited, broadcast news items. They automatically form part of the
archive. The four daily news bulletins and the rolling news on the 24-hour channel were
edited and indexed.
� Indexation = Title + Keywords + Description of images
RAW MATERIALS
One documentalist was responsible for monitoring, selecting and analysing these
images. They will be kept in the Archive following the criteria established by the Video
Library, so we decide which ones are kept in the archive (depending on whether they are
longer or better resources, etc.).
In the first few days, the volume of raw material was higher, but it gradually reduced to
two or three a day.
It was not always possible to identify everyone; there is a series of people (lawyers,
prosecutors, ex-ministers, judges, etc.) who are recur and are easily identifiable. If there
was any doubt whether anyone who appeared in the images we indicated it with question
marks.
Unofficial pictures. We have come across some curious cases of raw images we
cannot use. These consist of, for example, the arrivals of witnesses to court who later
claimed their image rights not to be recorded inside. We have images of them outside
the Supreme Court, arriving with their faces uncovered. We have indicated that this is
non-reusable sensitive material. The interested parties did not take any precaution, but
we have.
� Indexation = Title + Summary + Keywords + Image description
This material was linked to the edited items as they are the origin.
CLEAN FEED
These are the clean footage of interviews or special programmes. They are used for
getting clean quotes without chyrons and they can be reused later.
Indexation = Title + Summary + Keywords + Subtitles in Segments, if we are interested
in them.
NEWS AGENCIES
Every day, the Documentation Department receives and manages images from
international news Agencies like Reuters and France Press,or from Catalonia and Spain
like ACN, EFE and FORTA for the Newsroom. Every day, as well, a selection of these

10. 10
material is made to keep new or additional footage from the Agencies we subscribe into
the Archive. The Rights field is properly specified so they can be reused property.
Indexation = Title with keywords
TV INTERNATIONAL CHANNELS
Documentation has made a compilation of news items on the Catalan independence
process broadcast by foreign television channels since October 2017. The rights to use
these materials correspond to each television channel and their use, must be managed
via Production.
SOCIAL MEDIA
We archive two types of materials on @324 Instagram and Twitter accounts6
:
⮚ Native Videos that are posted. These pieces follow a standard circuit: we keep
them as they were broadcast and with a clean version, so we can reuse them.
⮚ The daily @324 Twitter feed giving information about the trial. In this case it’s
captured using the SnagIt editing programme to show evidence of how the
channel informed.
� Indexation = Title
PHOTOGRAPHS
On the first day of the trial (18/12/18), only the Spanish news Agency EFE was certified
to enter the Court and offered various photographs of the inside of the courtroom as a
public pool, with all the leading figures. These photographs were included in the Picture
Library Archive, particularly because they were of the defendants remanded in custody
and we had not had pictures of them for a long time.
� Indexation = Title + Keywords
6
https://www.instagram.com/324cat/
https://twitter.com/324cat?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

11. 11
DOCUMENTARY SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL
As we have mentioned, before the trial we did some prior search on footage and press
dossiers. The rest of the search was done ad hoc, every day. How busy we were
depended on the phase of the trial. For the testimony, expert evidence and document
submission, due to the large number of witnesses and the showing of videos, we
needed to make an Excel sheet, as a guide, so we did not to get lost among so many
numbers, dates, names, and who mentioned them, etc.
This also proved to be a very useful tool when it came to search for data journalism,
such as which witnesses and how many were called by a particular defence lawyer;
which were most in demand; how much documentary evidence was brought by each
side, etc.
TYPES OF SEARCH DURING THE BROADCAST OF THE TRIAL
1. CONCEPTUAL SEARCHES
The journalists specialising in the trial undertake more elaborate search to broadcast
analytical and reflective edited items.
Examples of advanced search would be:
⮚ “The defence strategies: who, when and how they has asked witnesses about
the passivity of Catalan police force.”
⮚ The number of times specific words were used, such as violence, human walls,
faces of hate, tumult, etc.”
This search has been made possible by the verbatim transcript of the sessions,
searching by keywords.
2. FOOTAGE SEARCHES
Searches for specific actions by significant figures in the trial at particular moments have
been made using descriptions of shots included by the documentalist.
It must be taken into account that the whole trial was produced with just four or five
cameras at different angles inside the courtroom and we could see close-ups of the
prosecution and defence lawyers during their interventions and the entries of witnesses,
but no recordings of the public or close-ups of the defendants during the session. The
Inside we could only rely on images from the TVE pool and the photographs from
the EFE Agency.
We also note the fact that, at the testimony phase, 200 out of the 426 witnesses
declared that they did not want their image to be seen on television. This seemed

12. 12
to be a problem on the face of it, but it turned out to be an opportunity to have more
images of defendants, defence and prosecution lawyers that we would perhaps not have
had if the camera had been focused on the witnesses during examination and cross-
examination.
The images recorded by TVC news and programme teams, during the trial, are all
from the Outside. They are of great interest too, because they include the daily transfer
of prisoners in police vans, the entries and exits of defendants, lawyers, judges,
prosecutors, family members, the public, ambient context and statements outside
court, etc.
Finally, we must also mention what we call the Invisible images (not shown). These are
“sequences” only narrated by journalists during their reports and live broadcast, also by
the witnesses interviewed afterwards on the different programmes,and alternative vision
such as the diary of the trial published by one of the defendants and the drawings by one
of the TVC journalists, for example, made live from inside the courtroom.
TYPES OF FOOTAGE
PEOPLE
Examples:
Defendant making gestures of disapproval with her head in the dock when she
heard statements from witnesses or the prosecutor that she disagreed with.
Defendant offering sweets to the other defendants.
The work of the court ushers accompanying the witnesses and preventing them
from going near to the defendants to greet them.
FILE IMAGES
All those subject related to the events being considered by the court, particularly
taking into account that during the sessions at the testimony phase, the court did
not allow videos to be shown. So, to put the information from those days of the
trial into context, the archive footage of the events defence and prosecution
witnesses talked about were used a great deal: September 20th, October 1st,
etc.
GAGS
Examples:
A member of the private prosecution team sleeping during the trial.
The prosecutor repeating words said by his witnesses.

13. 13
One of the defence lawyers informing the court that the same witness had been
called twice and no-one had noticed.
3. VERBATIM SEARCHES
Once again, the textual transcription has been a great tool for searching for specific
phrases, word for word, said during the trial that journalists wanted to highlight in their
news items. With the properly revised literal transcript it has been very easy.
Examples:
To find words or phrases repeatedly said by the leading figures in the trial.
To count the number of times particular words have been used: MISUSE OF
PUBLIC FUNDS (180 times), REBELLION (325 times), VIOLENCE (1,380
times), MASS (345 times), and make available statistics.
WINDOWS. DIFFERENT PROGRAMMES
The independence process trial has been treated differently depending on the
programme and the slot on TVC.
Most of it has been informative purposes as news bulletins and the 24-hour channel.
There has also been analysis and discussion,magazineand entertainment programmes,
reflection and, of course, humour.
We have worked with all of them making searches and documentary analysis.

14. 14
CONCLUSIONS
The coverage of this trial has been a challenge for Televisió de Catalunya, with a Single
Newsroom, many teams sent to Madrid or following the leading figures involved and
many question marks over the issues being dealt with and many questions to answer. It
has also been a challenge for the Documentation Department with its double mandate:
preserving the broadcast and the footage generated for the purposes of the social,
political, economic and cultural composition of the history of the country and treating the
images so they could be recovered, and working every day to carry on informing the
audience in the best possible way.
We had never come across such a long, complex live broadcast event and requiring
such an exhaustive and continually updated level of analysis. The many windows, slots
and forms of broadcast have made it even more difficult, but we have managed it!
We have put everything into the job of keeping the indexing of all the material up to date
in practice so that everything from big moments to minor amusing events occurring
during the four frantic months can be found as quickly as possible.
We have learned a lot of things about the judicial world; we have worked in a team; we
have got closer to the Newsroom; and we have been able to adapt our work to the
requirements of these great events.
And history has twists and turns. It continues or starts again and it never ends. Like a
never-ending story, whatever happens next we will once again search for archive
footage, selecting and dealing with the material generated, the political and social
reactions, etc…. and… we will do it again!