COUNTERING AUTHORITARIANISM – Solutions are only possible from free persons, with free media and democrats on the streets

Countering Authoritarianism is the title of the third panel discussion of the major international Conference “Defending Democracy and Human Rights in the Face of War, Nationalism and Authoritarianism”, which was held on December 12, 2024, organized by CIVIL – Center for Freedom (North Macedonia) and MEDIA DIALOGUE / Y4M (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), in partnership also with the New European People’s Forum based in Brussels, and with the support of the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia.

 The panel discussion that was moderated by Ana Chupeska, University Professor, included the participation of Gudrun Steinacker, Vice President of the Southeast Europe Association, Germany, Erwan Fouéré, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium, Kateryna Pavlova, Expert on disinformation and propaganda, Ukraine / Germany, Konstantinas Andrijauskas, University Professor, Lithuania and Srdjan Cvijić, President of the Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Serbia

Panel 3: Countering Authoritarianism – Challenges and Solutions

At the panel discussion, speakers discussed various strategies and best practices for resisting authoritarian tendencies and strengthening democratic governance. Special focus within this panel was placed on media literacy as one of the ways to counter malign operations of influence and antidemocratic trends in our societies.

Gudrun Steinacker: Solutions are only possible from free persons in a free society, with free media and a free discourse with a functioning jurisdiction

Gudrun Steinacker, Vice President of the Southeast Europe Association SOG, at the panel reflected on the authoritarianism that we can oppose with the freedom that is crucial.

“In these extremely difficult times with its multiple crisis, many people are afraid and intimidated. They understand that huge changes are taking place, but do not know how to react to them. It is the choice of each individual, groups, people to respond to these challenges. But politicians and intellectuals should play a leading role in these responses, according to their responsibility. But often the opposite is happening”, says Steinacker.

Kateryna Pavlova: The democrats need to get out of the conference halls and go on the streets to bond with people

Kateryna Pavlova, expert on disinformation and propaganda, Ukraine / Germany, pointed out that media literacy only affects information, disinformation works differently – on emotions.

“What I see traveling through different countries is that the dictators are really good at bonding, and the networking, while the democrats think ten times before they network with someone. And I think that media literacy is only about information, and this is where we are week, our weapon is not good enough. We see the disinformation is working with people on three levels, and we counter it with just one direction. No, we have to go deeper”, Pavlova says.

Konstantinas Andrijauskas: We need to be careful about the way autocrats present “objective truths”  

Konstantinas Andrijauskas, University Professor at Vilnius University, Lithuania, pointed out two key recommendations, to strive for objective truth and the way we will report on the objective reality.

“The reality that we’re living currently in is quite different. Our philosophical tradition these days, the writing one, is about deconstruction. It’s post-modern, right? In many ways, it is about questioning everything. It is about questioning the objective truth, right? This brings quite a lot of problems, you know, the Trump effect, the Brexit in general. It creates the environment for propaganda to truly thrive, and this is a big challenge that we’ve got. So, one of my key recommendations is to make clear whenever we’re interacting is that there is this thing called objective truth. Let us start from deep fundamentals. There is this thing which is called objective truth, so this should be the underlying principle”, Andrijauskas emphasized.

Srdjan Cvijic: Authoritarian regimes rely on manipulating people’s emotions

Srdjan Cvijic, President of the International Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Serbia, reflected on the media’s influence in creating public opinion under the influence of the Serbian government.

“Actually, it is not Russia to blame for the way in which Serbian people think about the world, their own country, relations with other countries in the region. Their minds are shaped by the media machine of the ruling party in Serbia. And why am I underlining this?  You may call the ruling party in Serbia useful idiots. We talked about it before, but I think it’s deeper than that. This distinction needs to be made because our president was just received by the German Chancellor as a legitimate partner in Germany because, yes, we do have lithium that everybody wants and then our competitive authoritarianism is considered, well, kind of more acceptable. So, I think this is a big problem that we have right now”, Cvijic said.

Erwan Fouéré: Imposed solutions are not the ones which guarantee long-term reconciliation

Erwan Fouéré, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium, pointed out that there is no doubt that the EU was giving in too much, not protecting human rights and democracy, we saw resistance too late, the EC should have suspended Orban’s party a long time ago.

“There is no doubt that we have been part of the complacent in the European Union on the protection of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental freedoms, principles that we took for granted for far too long, are being tested like never before. The rise of political parties that espouse far right populist agendas are an increasing threat to the basic principles and values that are the foundation stones of European integration. The EC should have suspended Orban’s party a long time ago”, Fouéré said.

The goal of the Conference is to shed light on the challenges against democracy and human rights, but also to develop applicable recommendations and foundations for strategies to overcome them. The Conference was part of the official program of Human Rights Week – an initiative of North Rhine-Westphalia, and was held on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, as well as the 25^th anniversary of the founding of CIVIL in 1999. The Conference is part of the international initiative Defending Democracy that was launched by partner organizations in Skopje.

Translated by: N. Cvetkovska

For more information on the Conference, please visit the special website defendingdemocracy.civilmedia.mk
CONFERENCE, FULL VIDEO, Streamed live on December 12, 2024:

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