Funds to digitise newspaper archive dating back to 1878

The director of the Press and Information Office (PIO), Sophie Michaelides, signed a contract on Wednesday for the digitisation of 500,000 pages of PIO newspaper archives dating back to 1878.

The contract was signed with company S. Kaniklides Ltd, in view of preserving the historical content for use by future generations, and allowing direct access to the digitised archives to students, researchers and the public.

The PIO newspaper archives date back over 140 years, and contain Greek, English, and Turkish language newspaper publications published in Cyprus.

The value of the contract amounts to €302,617. The project is expected to be completed within ten months.

The European Regional Development Fund covers 85 per cent of the cost of the digitisation project, while the remaining 15 per cent are covered by financial contributions of the Greek and Cypriot states.

The results of the project will be presented to the public in a conference scheduled for January 2020 in Nicosia.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.