EVENT, Budapest – Democratic Resilience: Practical Steps to Counter Disinformation

The event with Katalin Cseh, Péter Krekó, Dr Gábor Polyák, Dorka Takacsy and Galan Dalll.

The debate took place on 11 November at 3:00 PM at Create26, Király utca 26 in Budapest. We discussed the most pressing disinformation challenges and the policies that could shape Europe’s future.

Disinformation continues to undermine democracies and threaten the integrity of public discourse across Europe. As the European Union faces an evolving landscape of foreign interference, fake news and information manipulation, what strategies can be employed to strengthen resilience?

This panel brought together experts from the fields of business, technology, civil society and media to discuss concrete steps the EU can take to combat disinformation, from enhancing regulatory oversight and leveraging AI to fostering financial transparency and promoting media literacy.

Speakers:

Gábor Berczeli is the director of the Robert Schuman Institute for Developing Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (RSI), based in Budapest, Hungary. With the RSI serving as the educational center for the European People’s Party (EPP) and its family of 82 members across 43 countries, Gábor focuses on empowering the next generation of political leaders, particularly in the context of European Union governance. Additionally, Gábor serves on the Advisory Board for the European Party Monitor (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium – Konrad Adenauer Foun

Katalin Cseh is an experienced political leader and medical professional with over 15 years of experience in the European Parliament, healthcare, and public policy. Proven track record in strategic leadership, legislative processes, and grassroots organizing. Adept at managing multidisciplinary teams and driving initiatives to enhance human rights, gender equality, and democratic values.

Péter Krekó is a political scientist, social psychologist, disinformation expert. He is a senior fellow at the Washington-based CEPA think tank and a PopBack Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Earlier, he was a guest researcher at the Europe’s Futures – Ideas for Action program of the Vienna-based Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), and a non-resident Associate Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Institute of Policy Research. Peter is an associate professor with habilitation at the Department of Social Psychology at ELTE PPK. During 2016-2017, Péter worked as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in the United States at the Central Eurasian Studies Department of Indiana University. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the social psychology of conspiracy theories in 2014, and he habilitated in 2020.

Gábor Polyák works as a professor of media law and media policy and as the head of the Media and Communication Department of the Eötvös Loránd University. He also works as a senior research fellow for the Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences. Further, he is the founding researcher of Mertek Media Monitor, a Hungarian NGO dealing with media policy issues. He was a research fellow at the University of Münster’s Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law from 2014 to 2016. His educational background includes law and media studies at the University of Pécs, a Master of Laws degree in ICT law at the University of Vienna, and a PhD degree and habilitation at the University of Pécs.

Dorka Takácsy is Marcin Król Fellow 2022/2023 at Visegrad Insight and a Visiting Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a researcher passionate about politics in Russia and the CEE region. She pursues her PhD studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest, contemplating the broader topic of Russian domestic disinformation about the West. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID), focusing on disinformation.

The discussion will be moderated by Galan Dall – Managing Editor of Visegrad Insight. He has extensive editorial experience working in publishing with, for example, CultureScapes and Cities Magazine as well as writing for the LSE IDEAS Think Tank Ratiu Forum and editor for various GLOBSEC publications.

Find the photo story below, authored by Peter Konaka-Kiss:

The registered participants of this event will receive a PDF working copy of a policy report on European values that Visegrad Insight is preparing in EU Values Foresight project, supported by the European Commission’s Europe for Citizens Programme and the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) framework cooperation.