A/HRC/9/18 page 10 27. Because of the difficulties faced by the Department of Public Information in absorbing these costs, and given the balance of the voluntary contribution earmarked to support webcasting of Human Rights Council proceedings, a temporary division of financial responsibilities for webcasting was agreed until the establishment of a permanent capacity. This involved having the Department cover costs of the television coverage component and the actual webcast transmission of regular Council sessions on the Internet, with OHCHR financing the recruitment of webcast assistants to prepare speaker-by-speaker archives of the sessions and the travel and replacement costs for a New York-based webcast producer. OHCHR also continues to cover from voluntary contributions all the costs associated with special sessions of the Council. 28. As the Human Rights Council’s working methods have developed, there have been an increasing number of ad hoc requests for webcasting of other meetings. In the first half of 2008, this became a critical issue in relation to the new centerpiece of the Council’s work, the universal periodic review, as well as for the Durban Review Conference’s preparatory committee process. The Department of Public Information was asked to webcast the universal periodic review meetings, creating a precedent given that working group meetings do not usually receive such coverage at Headquarters. A statement from the President of the Council indicated that the Council would “consider favourably the adoption of a decision on the webcasting of all public proceedings of its various working groups”, and this was echoed by the Council in its resolution 8/1. The financing for these sessions has also been covered entirely from voluntary contributions. 29. The number of meetings requiring webcasting, the sporadic addition of requests, the frequent schedule changes and the uncertain funding have had an adverse effect on the production work of the Radio and Television Section. While the limited staff and facilities are fully involved with webcasting, there is little capacity for news and feature production. Services to broadcasters have been reduced as well. 30. Webcasting of the Human Rights Council alone is expected to involve 26 weeks of meetings a year. The OHCHR secretariat has been asked to explore the feasibility of webcasting the proceedings of all the treaty bodies as well, a request indicative of a growing demand for webcasting of other major activities at the United Nations Office at Geneva. For the moment, except in rare cases in which special financing is available, these services cannot be provided. 31. It is thus apparent that a permanent webcast capacity for the United Nations Office at Geneva is urgently needed. 1. The television coverage component 32. Since its inception, the proceedings of the Council have been filmed with television broadcast quality cameras, and the coverage has been used for news production, occasional live broadcasts and webcasting. Although this quality of coverage is expensive and higher than the requirements specifically for webcasting, the use of a single system for both broadcast and webcast purposes is in line with practice at United Nations Headquarters where the proceedings of major organs are filmed in their entirety with broadcast-quality cameras. Unlike at United Nations Headquarters, however, conference rooms in Geneva are not equipped with fixed television cameras. For this reason, it has been necessary to rent the equipment needed for Council for broadcast and webcast coverage and to hire temporary staff.