POINT 14 Conference Program Announced: AI, Elections, Democracy and Accountability in the Digital Age

The 14th edition of the POINT Conference will take place in Sarajevo on June 11 and 12 at Dom mladih. The panels and presentations will cover topics like artificial intelligence, elections, media literacy, Big Tech accountability, and other topics with a wide range of discussions on some of the most pressing challenges facing democracy, media and civil society in the digital environment.

POINT 14 will bring together journalists, researchers, civil society representatives, fact-checkers, and experts in digital rights, media literacy, electoral processes and technology accountability. They will exchange experiences and open discussions on how to protect democratic processes and the public interest in a time of rapid technological and political change.

The first day of the conference will kick off with discussion on artificial intelligence and its impact on the credibility of information. The first panel will explore how large language models and chatbots approach different topics, how they frame sensitive narratives, and what consequences this may have for the credibility of public information. 

This will be followed by the panel “Safeguarding Media Freedom in the Age of Big Tech and AI – a Regional Policy Approach”, which will address the protection of media freedom in an era shaped by the dominance of major technology companies and the rapid development of AI tools. 

A significant part of the program will be dedicated to elections and the challenges that the digital sphere poses to electoral processes. A panel on Moldova after the elections will examine the consequences of the electoral process, social cohesion and a whole-of-society approach to responding to crises. In partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the panel “Elections in 2026: Can We Protect Democracy?” will open a discussion on what we saw and what can be expected in the region ahead of electoral processes in 2026.

In partnership with the OSF WB / IGNITA Initiative, the conference will also feature the panel “Democracy Shield: What Is It and How Can We Use It?”, dedicated to the European Democracy Shield and its potential relevance for the Western Balkans. The discussion will focus on what this initiative could bring to EU candidate countries in terms of strengthening resilience to disinformation, foreign influence and threats to democratic processes.

The program will also address media literacy through the panel which will explore which approaches truly deliver results, what the role of the whole-of-society approach is and how to reach audiences that are often outside the scope of traditional media literacy programs.

The accountability of major technology companies will be the focus of the panel which will open a discussion on power relations between states, societies and technology platforms, as well as the possibilities for establishing more effective public and institutional oversight.

The second day of the conference will begin with the “Stories and Showcases” program, where numerous projects, tools and initiatives from the region and beyond will be presented through two simultaneous sessions.

Online scams and frauds will be the focus of the panel “Too Good to Be True: The Scam Economy”, which will address the growing phenomenon of scams online, most notably on social media. 

One of the conference topics will also be immigration. In partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the panel “The Anti-Immigrant Region: Fear, Prejudice and Politics” will address societal treatment of immigrants, political instrumentalization of migration, including attitudes toward foreign workers, asylum seekers and political migrants in the region. 

The program will also include a discussion on Ukraine through the session “Ukraine: Democracy Under Extreme Stress – How Does Accountability Work in a Digitally Mediated Conflict”, which will examine accountability, documentation and democratic resilience in the context of war and digitally mediated conflict.

Other topics at POINT 14 will include monitoring digital rights violations and turning documented cases into real-world change, technology-facilitated gender-based violence, election registration manipulation in Southeast Europe, assessing the accuracy of large language models, a workshop on the OCCRP Aleph Pro tool, the presentation of AI tools for the public interest, and deeper insights into Russian propaganda and its digital narratives.

The full POINT 14 program is available on the official conference website.

The POINT 14 Conference is held in partnership with the European Union, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Foundations, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the Prague Civil Society Centre, the OSCE, and the Centre for Democratic Transition of Montenegro.