PRESS RELEASE
Skopje, North Macedonia | October 10, 2025
The final day of the international conference Defending Democracy: The Battlefield of Truth, held in Skopje from October 8–10, 2025, marked the transition from reflection to action. Under the theme From Insights to Action – Building Democratic Resilience, the discussions focused on translating shared analyses and lessons into strategic measures for countering disinformation, hybrid threats, and authoritarian influence across Europe and the Western Balkans.
Organized by CIVIL – Center for Freedom, the conference brought together international experts, policymakers, journalists, and human rights defenders to discuss the pressing challenges facing democracy in an era of global instability. The conference was organized within the framework of Democracy Navigator, a strategic initiative by CIVIL supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, serving as an early-warning, assessment, and planning platform for strengthening democratic resilience and protecting electoral integrity.
The final day featured closed-door working sessions with CIVIL’s team, partner organizations, and analysts. Participants worked in three thematic groups addressing the national, regional, and international dimensions of democratic resilience:
- Working Group 1: Democracy Navigator – Early Assessment
- Working Group 2: Election Integrity and Disinformation
- Working Group 3: Democracy, Solidarity and Ukraine
The findings underscore that hybrid warfare and disinformation continue to erode trust in institutions, polarize societies, and destabilize democratic systems across the region. Participants called for stronger early-warning mechanisms, cross-border cooperation, and coordinated fact-checking efforts, while reaffirming unconditional solidarity with Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression.
The conference also emphasized the urgent need to reinforce media independence, protect civil society, and strengthen the rule of law — particularly in the Western Balkans — as essential pillars of democratic resilience.
Defending Democracy: The Battlefield of Truth is part of CIVIL’s broader collaboration with the Defending Democracy Global Initiative (DDGI), co-founded with Media Dialogue (Germany) and the New European People’s Forum (international), in partnership with the Westminster Alliance for Ukraine, Centro Studi Internazionali (Italy), and the Jean Monnet Association (France). Together, these organizations form an expanding international alliance committed to defending truth, democracy, and human rights across Europe and beyond.
A full report of Day 3 — including detailed analyses and outcomes from the working groups is published on CIVIL’s media platform. The comprehensive conference report with policy recommendations will be published in the coming days.
CIVIL – Center for Freedom
Watch the opening panel Ukraine’s Struggle – Europe’s Future, Our Common Reality – International Conference, October 8, 2025 (English)