Democratising the Internet with Independent Media: The Need to Build New Spaces from Scratch Today’s digital landscape often feels dominated by gatekeepers—tech giants, algorithms, and monetised platforms that prioritise profits over people and verified information. This panel explores how these challenges are reshaping the way we consume and create information online. The need to understand the tech issues confronting media organisations—censorship, data centralisation, diminishing reach, and algorithmic bias—and ask how independent media can pioneer alternative spaces is pressing. What does it take to build a truly open and equitable digital ecosystem from scratch? How can technology, collaboration, and creativity empower media to thrive outside traditional platforms? It is about reclaiming the internet’s potential and charting a path forward for independent voices to work towards democratising the informative digital space. Powered by Krytyka Polyticzna and VD News With: Agustin Ferrari Braun (University of Amsterdam | NL) Paulina Januszewska (Krytyka Polyticzna | PL) Samuele Maccolini (VD News | IT) Moderation: Heritiana Ranaivoson (Vrije Universiteit Brussel | BE)
Voices in Exile: Stories from Afar Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Voices in Exile: Stories from Afar Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Voices in Exile: Stories from Afar Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Voices in Exile: Stories from Afar Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Voices in Exile: Stories from Afar Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Let’s turn the microphone around, giving journalists in exile the chance to share their stories. For once, they step out of their usual roles as interviewers to become the ones being interviewed. Through dynamic conversations, this radio set delves into their personal journeys of resistance and adaptation, uncovering the human side of exile. Beyond their individual experiences, the light is shed on the independent media landscapes they left behind—exploring the challenges, successes, and various perspectives of their work under pressure. In partnership with Voix en Exil, Les Contistadors & Hôtel71
Wherever far-right regimes come to power in Europe, their primary target is the media independence. This is evident in Slovakia, where a public audiovisual law threatens to turn public radio and television, RTVS, into a tool for “propaganda.” In Hungary, approximately 500 national and local media outlets have been consolidated into a foundation aimed at “promoting Hungarian national consciousness,” under the aegis of Viktor Orbán. In Italy, the government no longer hides its interference in controlling public media’s directions. Week by week, such examples are multiplying, from the West to the East of the continent. This situation highlights the chronic fragility of independent and public service media ecosystems. While the European Union is legislating on these issues, as seen with the adoption of the Media Freedom Act, is it already too late? How are independent media impacted by these regimes coming to power? And how are they fighting against these trends? And what roles can European networks like Sphera or Reset! play in response to these dynamics? Powered by StreetPress This discussion is part of the Reset! Live Podcast series. With: Daphné Deschamps (StreetPress | FR) Ricardo Gutiérrez (European Federation of Journalists | BE) Oláh Kata (444 | HU) Moderation : Quentin Ariès (Médianes | FR)
Independent Media: A Continent at the Crossroads by European Lab
Frontlines of Truth: Disinformation in Reporting on Aggressive Power Structure and the Role of Independent Media In times of information warfare, reporting in contexts of adversity—whether in Hungary, Palestine, or Ukraine—demands more than journalistic rigour; it requires resilience against a tide of disinformation designed to cover up the truth and manipulate public opinion. This panel will delve into the challenges journalists face when exposing abuses of power, the tactics used by aggressive regimes to distort narratives, and the vital role of independent media in defending democracy and human rights. Journalists and researchers will share firsthand experiences from conflict zones and contested spaces. As independent players, they navigate censorship, propaganda, and threats to uphold their commitment to truth—while resisting the erosion of facts in the face of authoritarianism. Powered by 444 With: Szilvi Német (Lakmusz.hu, | HU) Meera Selva (Internews Europe | UK) Terrell Jermaine Starr (Black Diplomats | US) Moderation: Yago Álvarez (El Salto | ES)
Talk • Festivals and Cultural Activities in the Time of Extreme Weather Maison de l’environnement Free, registering is recommended Can we keep on dancing in a world on fire? As climate change intensifies and extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, significant challenges are posed to festivals—and more broadly to the entire cultural scene. How can organizers adapt to such changes? What measures should be put in place in this context to ensure the mental health of artists, festival-goers, and audiences of such cultural events? How to envision the future of cultural and artistic activities in a world subjected to these extreme weather phenomena? By giving voice to one of the organisers of the Italian festival Terraforma—an event putting environmental sustainability as one of its priority—as well as to the artist and theorist Gigsta who ≠reflects on the links between the music industry and social justice, this exchange aims to explore strategies for managing and adapting to these challenges for the entire contemporary cultural scene. The talk will be held in English. With: Nono Gigsta (Cashmere Radio I DE) Mariavittoria Perrone (Terraforma I IT) In cooperation with TIMES (The Independent Movement for Electronic Scenes)
Listening Session—Field Recordings as a Means of Archiving and Understanding our Environment Moderation: Olha Udovenko (Gasoline Radio, UA) Gasoline Radio’s exploratory project about the Folklore of the Hutsul region, resulted in a documentary as well as an album and ambient sound recordings. Moderated by the Gasoline member Olha Udovenko, the Listening Session highlights Gasoline’s project “Heritage” and investigates how sound, and especially field recordings can be a strategy to preserve heritage.
No Festivals on a Dead Planet: Strategies for Sustainable Events With: Andrii Yankovskiy (Cultural player I UA) Moderation: Olha Udovenko (Gasoline Radio, UA) Through a focus on the impact that festivals can have on their environment, we will aim for new strategies to design less impactful events. Might the trend toward daytime outdoor events overtaking nighttime clubbing be one element of our solution ? How can we be more considerate “guests” of nature while organizing events outside ?
Ecological Intervention through Multidisciplinary Art and Media tools: The Role of Sound in Ecosystem Preservation With: Yuliia Shumishyna (Biorhythm, UA) Vlady Che (ϙue I UA) Moderation: Olha Udovenko (Gasoline Radio, UA) How can culture represent a new entry to questions of ecology? This panel will illuminate how multidisciplinary arts and media tools can play a role in the mediation around the preservation of our ecosystem.
Ecocide: How to Mitigate the Ecological Consequences of War With: Vira I dd/mm/yy (UA) Moderation: Olha Udovenko (Gasoline Radio, UA) We may rebuild cities, but we may never fully mitigate the ecological consequences of war. We often consider the harm caused by war in terms of lost lives and destroyed cities, and neglect the immense damages that warfare also inflicts on our environment. The Ukrainian origin, and now Lisbon based collective Vira I dd/mm/yy that works to minimize and pursue the damages that the Russian warfare has on the Ukrainian environment, will intervene for this discussion.
A journalist welcomes music personalities and artists from the lineup to discuss their artistic practices and future of music.
Each day, a journalist welcomed music personalities and artists from the lineup to discuss their artistic practices and future of music.
A Conversation with Del4raa and Geopoet by European Lab
The reading oscillates between a wish to share and convey the authors voices and another one to archive them for their memory to be shared. The selection of texts wishes to underline the cultural and political ties between several decolonial contexts. The texts will convey the voices of, cultural workers, journalists and story-tellers and commented by the readers carefully crafting the links between them. As the first part of the reading establishes links through words, the second one does so with the help of images sharing with the audiences « Quinquina Diaspora », a video work by Samir Laghouati-Rashwan aligned with the topics carried through the texts. With: Zola Chichmintseva-Kondamambou (Beyond the post-soviet I FR) Iris Ouedraogo (Association des Journalistes Antiracistes et Racisé.e.s I FR)
The European media space could use some good design. The intersection between journalism and design is there to be explored. New media projects need better good designed set-ups, models and inclusive approaches, meant to be accessible to all, without technical, structural, and societal barriers. The new creed of Are We Europe – Designing Europe’s Media for All – is meant to be a rallying cry for all actors, for media big & small, legacy & independent, team & creator. A call for media to design their project and publications with the end user – the audience, the partners – in mind, to design adaptable, resilient organisations and diversify their revenue models. And to break down barriers to access to highly important information, whether these are visible or invisible barriers, and for those with visible or invisible disabilities. The keynote will be the center point of The Circle event, by its initiator, part of this partner-led consortium that has gone to 8 cities across Europe to build better bridges between media organisation. With: Mick ter Reehorst (Are We Europe / NL)