About the Mediatheque

The AIDSSH Mediatheque is a public documentary platform that presents a curated, thematic selection of archival materials, created and presented in accordance with the legislation in force on the protection of personal data and access to documents, pursuant to Law No. 45/2015.

This platform is not intended to replace the archive, but to serve as an orienting and explanatory entry point to a much broader archival collection, which remains accessible through direct research at the AIDSSH physical archive, based on a legal request.

WHAT THE MEDIATHEQUE CONTAINS

The Mediatheque is organized through:

• historical events,
• individuals,
• sites of suffering and internment,

which are built on selected archival documents and are accompanied by metadata, transcriptions, and contextual descriptions. These selections are not intended to be exhaustive, but representative of practices, mechanisms, and experiences documented by the archive of the former State Security (Sigurimi).

The materials presented in the Mediatheque come from:

• AIDSSH’s day-to-day documentary work;
• structured proposals from researchers, museums, and media outlets;
• contributions from affected individuals and their family members, reviewed and institutionally verified.

THE NATURE OF THE ARCHIVE AND CRITICAL READING

The archive of the former State Security, unlike other archives, contains documents produced and collected clandestinely, without the knowledge of the individuals involved at the time they were created. This fact requires a careful, critical, and verified reading, in which the document is not taken as an absolute truth, but as a historical source that must be contextualized.

The Mediatheque aims precisely to encourage this approach:

• a reading that brings together the document, the context, and, where possible, personal testimonies.

WHAT THE MEDIATHEQUE IS NOT

The Mediatheque:

• does not offer a complete or definitive overview of the archive;
• does not produce conclusive narratives or official interpretations of history;
• does not replace direct archival research;
• does not present documents outside the legal framework.

It is a tool for orientation, documentation, and reflection, not a closed or final archive.

A PLATFORM IN CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT

The Mediatheque is continuously enriched, reflecting:

• new declassifications;
• new archival research;
• new verified contributions.

In this sense, it functions as a dynamic exhibition of a much larger archive, which can be fully accessed through an official request to AIDSSH, in accordance with Law No. 45/2015.