DIGITAL
THREATS
Look at how the space we work in is being reshaped by disinformation, legal restrictions and digital repression
MEGAPHONE & e-Society 2026 WE HOLD THE LINE
The shared effort
Democratic backsliding rarely looks like a collapse. It happens incrementally – laws quietly amended, civic freedoms rolled back through bureaucratic decisions that never make headlines, digital platforms turned against the people using them to organize.
It accumulates in the space between elections, in the slow exhaustion of people who have been fighting the same fight for years.
And yet the line holds, not because of public institutions or international commitments, but because people hold it – activists who keep organising after their funding is cut, CSOs that keep doing their work despite being harassed by SLAPPs, and civic educators working in local communities. This is what defending democracy looks like in Eastern Europe and Central Asia right now: under-resourced, largely invisible, and the only thing that is actually working.
MEGAPHONE & e-Society 2026 is a gathering of people who are already doing the work - unglamorous, unrelenting, essential - coming together to make it stronger and to remind each other why it matters.
WE HOLD THE LINE
The theme of this year’s gathering is We Hold the Line – a recognition that in times of persistent pressure, continuity itself is an act of resistance.
Over two days in Skopje, around 100 activists, CSO representatives, digital rights defenders, climate advocates, civic educators and community builders from across the region will come together to discuss the conditions we are working in and strengthen our capacity to work in them.
Holding the line is not passive; it is a daily decision made under pressure by people who have looked clearly at what is at stake and chosen not to walk away. It means adapting when the rules change, and they keep changing. It means using the technologies that also surveil us, on our own terms and with our own safeguards. It means staying connected across borders, languages and issue areas, because isolation is a tactic used against civil society, and solidarity is the countermeasure. It also means celebrating smaller and bigger wins and getting inspired by the work others are doing.
KEY FOCUS AREAS
DIGITAL
ETHICAL
TECH
Explore how technology and data - including AI - can serve civic work practically and ethically, without surrendering our autonomy to the tools we use
GLOBAL
KNOWLEDGE
Exchange strategies across movements, issues and national contexts - because what works in one environment can strengthen another
REGIONAL
UNITY
Strengthen the regional community of practice because the challenges are too big to face them alone
The DDI Programme is co-funded by The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The EU Commission, and The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
