Two public roundtables were held during the final MeDeMAP project meeting, which took place from 24 to 26 September 2025 at the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, Austria. The first one focused on citizens‘ parliaments as a democratic innovation and was organised by COMMIT. The second, set up by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW), addressed the use and potential misuse of open research data. The project meeting also provided an opportunity for Charles University to present its creative short film, Agon: Constructions of Democracy.
Citizen parliaments – learnings for democratic innovation
COMMIT had invited to a public roundtable on “Citizen parliaments – learnings for democratic innovation” on 24 September, which was also streamed online. During the first part of the roundtable, the project partners COMMIT (Austria), Charles University (Czech Republic), Mary Immaculate College (Ireland), and the Peace Institute (Slovenia) presented and discussed the findings of the Citizens‘ Parliaments on Media and Democracy, which were organised between March and May 2025 in the four countries.
Results and learnings from the Citizens‘ Parliaments on Media and Democracy
The citizens‘ parliaments (CP) had been a great and rewarding experience, agreed the organisers. Participants in the four countries demonstrated a strong collective commitment to developing resolutions on crucial public issues, proving the value of citizens‘ parliaments, as Nico Carpentier (Charles University, Czech Republic) stated. The Czech CP adopted 31 resolutions, with the financing of public media being an important issue.
Brankica Petkovic (Peace Institute, Slovenia) explained that in Slovenia, the CP on media and democracy coincided with parliamentary discussions on a law adopted in September. Participants of the CP demanded stricter oversight of media ownership, greater transparency in media financing, an independent regulator responsible for all media types, and media literacy programmes. Many of these issues are addressed by the new law.
Bringing people together in the context of the current struggles for democracy and for media freedom gave the Irish citizens’ parliament a great sense of purpose, stressed Rosemary Day (Mary Immaculate College, Ireland). Participation in the media was a key topic of discussion. Irish citizens demanded more funding for journalist training and media literacy programmes outside of schools, and proposed organising town hall meetings mediated by the media.
Many resolutions of the Austrian CP addressed public support for the media, which should be directed towards outlets that respect quality criteria and encourage citizen participation. Another key request was for media literacy to be made available to everyone, as stated by Laurence Monnot (COMMIT).
Impact and opportunities of participatory democracy
In the second part of the roundtable, Markus Götsch (narrativum.at), Tijana Matić and Teresa Feith (Office for Participation/City of Vienna) and Daniela Ingruber (strategieanalysen.at) discussed the impact and opportunities of participatory democracy, and how citizens‘ parliaments have established themselves as a policymaking tool, using Vorarlberg and Vienna as examples. The discussion was moderated by Helmut Peissl (COMMIT).
Teresa Feith from the newly established Office for Participation and Empowerment indicated that Vienna is endeavouring to expand participation in the city. Her colleague, Tijana Matić, informed about the Climate Team pilot project involving citizen juries and participatory budgets in several Vienna districts. Markus Götsch, an experienced facilitator, presented the practice and tradition of citizens‘ councils in the western Austrian region of Vorarlberg, where they are enshrined in the regional constitution. However, he also highlighted the potential threat posed by the dissolution of the Office for Volunteering and Participation. Political analyst Daniela Ingruber emphasised the importance of civic education and participation in protecting democracy.
Roundtable “How to prevent data misuse?”
“How to prevent data misuse?” was the topic of the second public discussion organised on 25 September by OEAW. Josef Seethaler (OEAW) had invited the researchers Kristina Juraitė (Vytautas Magnus University; DIACOMET), Lars Kaczmirek (AUSSDA – The Austrian Social Science Data Archive), Krisztina Rozgonyi (OEAW; DIACOMET) and Josef Trappel (Paris Lodron University Salzburg; ReMeD) – who partly participated on site and partly joined online – to discuss issues around the use and potential misuse of open research data. The roundtable discussion was an important focal point for the MeDeMAP research project to decide on its own plans of sharing research data in a forthcoming Map of European political information environments.
Short film on constructions of democracy
On 24 September, Charles University presented in avant-premiere its creative short film Agon: Constructions of Democracy, based on the book Democracy and Media in Europe by Nico Carpentier and Jeffrey Wimmer. The filmmakers, Nico Carpentier, Ali Minanto and Jhon Sany Purwanto, gave insights into the filmmaking process in a short panel discussion. The official première of the film will take place on 23 October 2025, 1 pm at the Ponrepo Cinema in Prague.