A bright future ahead for democracy?

September 15, 2022 at 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
14:00 EEST (13:00 CEST) – 16:30 EEST (15:30 CEST) ONLINE. 13:30–18:00 EEST at the Sitra auditorium, Itämerenkatu 11–13, 00180 Helsinki (coffee served 13:30–14:00, Democracy Drinks 16:30–18:00).
#digipower

The war in Ukraine and Finland’s security policy decisions are strongly framing the Finnish discussion on democracy at present. What are the opportunities of individual citizens to obtain information, participate and have an influence, in the era of “digital oligarchy”? Or what are the forces affecting democracy and our representative decision-making system in Finland particularly?

Sitra held a discussion forum that dived into the topics of influence through information and possibilities of civic participation. The seminar took place on the International Day of Democracy, 15 September.

The event’s keynote speaker is researcher, journalist and producer Peter Pomerantsev, one of the world’s foremost experts on disinformation and propaganda. He is the author of Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible and This Is Not Propaganda – Adventures In The War Against Reality, among other works. This year, Pomerantsev was awarded with the European Press Prize.

We also had the pleasure to welcome Alice Stollmeyer, the Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy, as a speaker. Stollmeyer has a background in social studies of science, technology & society. In addition to her work on democracy, technology, geopolitics and hybrid threats, she has launched a global #DemocracyDrinks concept which was now introduced also in Finland.

In the event we together sought answers to the aforementioned questions. You can join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #DigiPower.

The seminar was continued in Ruoholahti with Democracy Drinks until 18:00.

Materials

Please find below the recordings of the event as well as a link to the Digital Information Literacy Guide that was introduced at the event.

For further information on Democracy Drinks Helsinki, please visit our project page in order to stay up to date on forthcoming events!

More information and the latest news on Sitra’s Democracy work and Digital Power and Democracy project can be found here.

Programme

14:00 EEST (13:00 CEST)
14:00	Opening: Digital power and democracy Veera Heinonen, Director, Democracy and Participation theme, Sitra Jukka Vahti, Project Director, Sitra
14:10	Keynote: Can information wars be won? Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow Johns Hopkins University, Author of of Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible and This Is Not Propaganda – Adventures In The War Against Reality
14:50	Panel Discussion: From hybrid threats to hybrid solutions Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow Johns Hopkins University Alice Stollmeyer, Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy Jyrki Katainen, President of Sitra
15:30	Break 10 min
15:40	Defending democracy in practice: Digital information literacy Kari Kivinen, Education expert
16:10	Launch: Democracy Drinks Finland Alice Stollmeyer, Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy
16:25	Closing words Veera Heinonen, Director, Democracy and Participation theme, Sitra
16:30	Democracy Drinks in the Sitra premises
18:00	The event ends
	The event was moderated by Jukka Vahti, Project Director, Sitra