BBC News opens archives to public

The fall of the Berlin Wall features among almost 80 reports released

The fall of the Berlin Wall and footage of the 1966 England World Cup team are among items released from the BBC News archives for the first time.

The behind-the-scenes footage of the England football team before their win is among nearly 80 items covering some iconic events over the past 50 years.

The bulletins, which are available online, are for the UK public to use for free in their own creative works.

The clips have been made available under the Creative Archive Licence.

The initiative was first mooted in 2003 by the then director general Greg Dyke.

Edit clips

The scheme allows people within the UK to watch, download, edit and mix the clips and programming for non-commercial programming.

The release of these reports, offered as The Open News Archive, means the BBC has now doubled the number of programme extracts it originally made available through an initial trial with Radio 1 Interactive.

Helen Boaden, director of BBC News, said: "This trial is an important step in allowing us to share with our audiences the extraordinary news archive which the BBC has recorded over the years. We look forward to getting their reaction."

Paul Gerhardt, project director of the Creative Archive Licence Group, added the big news stories of the last three decades were "the punctuation marks in the stories of our lives".

"The BBC's telling of those stories is part of our heritage, and now that the UK public have the chance to share and keep them we're keen to know how they will be used," he said.

The BBC said it will be releasing further material across other areas over the coming months.

The British Film Institute, Channel 4, Open University and Teachers' TV are also set to make more content available.