A few days before the Bundestag elections, researchers and media professionals will discuss free election reporting and its threats at the 21st Frankfurt Media Law Days on Wednesday, February 12 and Thursday, February 13. Experts from Germany, the USA and south-eastern European countries will talk about disinformation and propaganda as key challenges to free democracy, focusing primarily on issues relating to reporting before, during and after elections.
The event is open to the public - in addition to interested parties, the media are also cordially invited to attend the event or selected panels in the Senate Hall in the main building of the European University Viadrina, Große Scharrnstraße 59. If you are interested, please use this registration form.
From the program
On Wednesday, February 12, 10 a.m., Prof. Dr. Benjamin Lahusen, Dean of the Faculty of Law, and media law expert Prof. Dr. Johannes Weberling will open the event. This will be followed by panel discussions on topics including the 2024 US presidential election campaign (from 10.45 a.m.), elections and propaganda in South-East Europe (from 12 noon) and the role of the state media authorities (from 3 p.m.). From 4.30 p.m., there will then be a panel discussion with journalists responsible for the Märkische Oderzeitung newspaper, among others, on "Disinformation in the Bundestag election campaign and countermeasures".
On Thursday, 13. February, the second day of the conference will begin at 9 am with a session on "The Power of Big Tech: How to Combat Information Manipulation in the Digital Space". This will be followed from 10.15 a.m. by "Civil society in times of elections: Experiences from Southeast Europe and Germany".
For more informationFor the full program, please see the link.
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Background
Since 2001, the media law study and research focus of the Faculty of Law at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) has been organizing the Frankfurt Media Law Days. They take place in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Southeast Europe Society and are supported by the Märkische Oderzeitung. The Media Law Days are designed as a place for international exchange between media professionals, academia, civil society and politics and address currently relevant social challenges. Key topics have included "Journalism in times of war" (July 2022), "Regulation of internet platforms" (December 2021) and "Media freedom in Europe - on the retreat?" on the tenth anniversary in November 2011.