The Power of Informantion

On Thursday June 8^th, 2023, between 8.30 and 13.30 am, at the Marriott hotel (AV. El. Dorado69B-53) the Democracy & Culture Foundation in collaboration with the Innovation for Development Foundation and ATLAS organisation will conduct a six-hour citizens’ driven consultation on the issue of information/disinformation. Local citizens will be asked to debate this issue and come up with policy suggestions that may have either a Colombia-oriented or a universal application that, when implemented, will contribute to the strengthening of the functioning of Liberal Democracy. 

The consultation is part of the “Re-Imagining the Building Blocks of Democracy”, a 3-year international project, already in its 2d year of implementation which runs in 10 cities across the world (both the Global North and the Global South) and aims through a combination of experts’ roundtables and citizens’ consultations to identify, publicize and push for implementation specific policy proposals that would help Liberal Democracy meet the challenges of our times. The proposals concentrate on five main functional processes of Democracy (building blocks) namely people, parties-money & influence, voting, information & disinformation and the balance between legislative and executive power. 

The consultation will be conducted in Spanish.

Some of the issues that will be debated during the consultation are the following: 

• The power of information: It has become clear that unfettered social media poses serious dangers to the functioning of democratic government, and yet freedom of speech is a fundamental element of democracy. 
• When do needed regulations cross into unacceptable censorship? Is disinformation a danger to democracy? Do corporate technical giants help or weaken democracy? 
• Which is the role of the press and of public opinion, journalistic integrity and immunity? Which of their detractors? Is there a relationship between disinformation and the rise of national populism?

Speakers: 

• Gina Romero, Executive Director REDLAD
• Camila Zuluaga, TV and radio journalist
• Amy Larsen, Director of Strategy, Democracy Forward at Microsoft
• Giovanni Celis, Director of Red+ Noticias

Registration is required: www.atlasmovement.org/powerofinformation

For more information: Adriana Mejia adriana.mejia@fimasd.org

Elina Makri elina@democracyculturefoundation.org

Strategic Partner