Regional Conference on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference and Disinformation

06.05.2026

Download Speakers

Image for Regional Conference on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference and Disinformation

Regional Conference on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and Disinformation

REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON FIMI AND DISINFORMATION

📅 6–7 May 2026
📍 Science and Technology Park, Podgorica (Day 1: Conference Hall Unicorn, II floor; Day 2: MVP Conference Room, II floor)

Held under the Chatham House Rule, the conference explores how governments and societies can anticipate (prebunk), prevent, and respond (debunk) to malign information operations. Filming and recording is allowed only in the opening session. The preparation of this conference is supported by the Atlantic Council of Montenegro.

Conference programme:

DAY 1 – Wednesday, 6 May 2026

🕘 09:00 – 09:30 | OPENING REMARKS

Objectives, Chatham House Rule, Expected Outcomes

Conference host: Ms. Vanja Madzgalj, Senior Project Manager, WB3C

Speakers:

Mr. Gilles Schwoerer, WB3C
Mr. Filip Ivanović, PhD, Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, Government of Montenegro
Mr. Emanuele Giaufret, Deputy Managing Director - Western Europe, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Mr Cosmin Dobran, Director for Peace, Partnerships and Crisis Management, European External Action Service (EEAS)

🕤 09:30 – 10:15 | KEYNOTE ADDRESS

FIMI as a National Security and Governance Challenge

How foreign influence exploits governance gaps — a historical reflection and how states respond without undermining freedoms.

Speaker: Mr. David Colon, PhD, Associate Professor, Sciences Po, France

🕥 10:15 – 11:15 | CASE STUDY

Anatomy of Disinformation Operations: Case Study and Lessons Learned

From storyline to impact: mapping actors, vectors, and decision-making pressure points.

Speaker: Mr. Ronan Mouchoux, Co-founder and CTO, XRATOR, France

☕ 11:15 – 11:45 | NETWORKING BREAK

🕦 11:45 – 12:30 | PANEL 1

How FIMI Operations Actually Work

What distinguishes organic debate from coordinated manipulation? Evidence thresholds: what is enough to act as a government? How can early detection enable prebunking of emerging narratives before they take hold?

Speakers:

Ms. Lejla Turčilo, PhD, Full Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo
Mr. Miroslav Sazdovski, Senior Analyst, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats
Mr. Filip Stojanovski, Metamorphosis Foundation

Moderator: Mr. Marko Banović, Digital Forensic Centre, Montenegro

🕧 12:30 – 13:15 | CASE STUDY

Disrupting a Covert Influence Operation: The REST Media / Rybar Case

A deep dive into a Russian state-affiliated influence operation, examining tactics, attribution, and links to the Western Balkans. The session will also explore how such networks can be exposed and disrupted, including legal and operational approaches to tackling FIMI infrastructure.

Speaker: Mr. Jakub Kubś, PhD, Researcher at GLOBSEC

🍽 13:15 – 14:15 | LUNCH BREAK

🕑 14:15 – 15:00 | PANEL 2

Election Integrity: Building Resilience

A whole-of-society approach to countering FIMI — institutions, platforms, media, and rapid response protocols for the final mile including prebunking of electoral manipulation narratives.

Speakers:

Ms. Milica Kovačević, President, Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT)
Mr. Zlatko Vujović, PhD, CEO of the European Network for Election Monitoring (ENEMO)
Ms. Danijela Vojinović, Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA)
Ms. Madalina Voinea, EFOR, Romania

Moderator: Ms. Olivera Komar, PhD, Full Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Montenegro

🕒 15:00 – 15:45 | PANEL 3

Response Options: What is Legitimate, Effective and Safe

Public communication under uncertainty, legal tools, cross-government coordination, institutional trust, media literacy

Speakers:

Ms. Radica Zeković, Director General at the Directorate for Media, Ministry of Culture and Media of Montenegro
Mr. Jetmir Rajta, Specialist at the Sector for Statistics, Modelling and Indicator Analysis, National Authority for Cybersecurity of Albania

Moderator: Mr. Draško Jabučanin, Analyst, Digital Forensic Centre, Montenegro

🕓 15:45 – 16:00 | DAY 1 CLOSING

Reflection and Family Photo

DAY 2 – Thursday, 7 May 2026

🕘 09:00 – 09:15 | MORNING BRIEFING AND OPENING REMARKS

Recap & Key Takeaways

Speaker: Ms. Sofia Badari, Programme Manager for Cybersecurity, DG ENEST

🕤 09:15 – 10:15 | PANEL 4

Safeguarding the European Path: Building Resilience in the Western Balkans

Strengthening institutions, defending public trust, and reducing vulnerabilities to foreign interference.

Speakers:

Ms. Biljana Papović, State Secretary, Ministry for European Affairs of Montenegro
Ms. Natalie Pauwels, Head of the Strategic Coordination and Communication Unit, DG ENEST
Mr. Miroslav Sazdovski, Senior Analyst, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats
Ms. Armela Krasniqi, Chairwoman of the Audiovisual Media Authority of Albania

Moderator: Nikoleta Đukanović, PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty for Humanistic Studies, University Donja Gorica

🕤 10:15 – 10:25 | INSIGHT

Election Integrity in the Age of FIMI: Lessons from Election Observation

Speakers: Ms. Jelena Stefanović, MPA, Political and Election Expert, OSCE; Serbia

🕥 10:25 – 11:10 | PANEL 5

Judicial Response to FIMI and Disinformation
From digital evidence to prosecution of FIMI. Strengthening rule of law in the digital space.

Speakers:

Ms. Audrey Gerbaud, Deputy Prosecutor at the Paris Judicial Court, Cyber Department J3
Mr. Arben Murtezić, PhD, Legal Counsel at the Office of Vice President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ms. Marina Barbir, Judge at Higher Court in Belgrade
Mr. Ivan Jokić, Head of Head of the Criminal Intelligence Division at the Police Administration of Montenegro

Moderator: Ms. Ana Bukilić, Programme Manager at IDLO

☕ 11:10 – 11:40 | NETWORKING BREAK

🕦 11:40 – 12:40 | PANEL 6

Media on the Frontline of the Fight Against Disinformation

How media organisations detect, verify, respond to, and build resilience against disinformation, including AI-generated content with a focus on debunking practices and audience trust.

Speakers:

Mr. Nicolas Goinard, Journalist, Ouest-France
Mr. Marko Banović, Analyst, Digital Forensic Centre
Ms. Adelina Hasani, PhD, Head of Research at Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED)
Ms. Sunčica Bakić, Director, Agency for Audio-Visual Media Services of Montenegro

Moderator: Olivera Nikolić, Director of Montenegro Media Institute

🕧 12:40 – 14:10 | INTERACTIVE EXERCISE

War Game: Tabletop Simulation

Mixed country groups with assigned roles. Injects: manipulated video, leaked documents, coordinated hashtags, proxy media, diaspora channels, offline incidents. Participants will test both prebunking and debunking responses under time pressure.

Facilitators:

Mr. Ronan Mouchoux, Co-founder and CTO, XRATOR
Mr. Nicolas Goinard, Journalist, Ouest-France

🕑 14:10 – 14:15 | CLOSING REMARKS

Conference Wrap-up

🍽 14:15 – 15:15 | LUNCH

✈️ DEPARTURE

Speakers

Open Speakers PDF

Downloads:

FIMI-and-Disinformation-Conference-FINAL-AGENDA.pdf

Other news and events

Four days of OSINT and Dark Web training for Western Balkan law enforcement

This week at WB3C, police officers and prosecutors from the Western Balkans worked through a four-day practical programme on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Dark Web investigations, delivered in cooperation with CIVIPOL and EU4FAST.
Led by WB3C training team Cyril CORRIAS and Jean-Pierre Bonnet, the course focused on the practical skills needed to collect and analyse publicly available information in support of Internet investigations — from identifying potential threats and gathering digital evidence to producing actionable intelligence.

The programme moved progressively through the fundamentals of Internet investigations and evidence preservation, protection and anonymisation techniques, social network investigations, online checks and surveys, and safe navigation of the Dark Web, combining each area with practical exercises. Participants also worked on approaches to data collection and the legal and ethical considerations linked to the use of digital information.

The training brought together law-enforcement practitioners from the WB6 who were attending a WB3C programme for the first time, expanding the network of professionals in the region equipped to work with open-source information in increasingly complex digital investigations.

Our thanks to our partners CIVIPOL and EU4FAST, and especially Marie Pierre MOSIN for supporint this programme, and to all participants for four intensive and highly practical days in Podgorica.

Minister Delegate Marie-Pierre Vedrenne Visits WB3C

On the sidelines of the BerlinProcess meetings held in Montenegro this week, we were honoured to welcome Ms Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, responsible for Citizenship.

Accompanied by the newly appointed French Ambassador to Montenegro, Ms Cécile Humbert-Bouvier, the Minister met with the WB3C team and learned more about the training programmes being delivered at the Cyber Centre this week.

She spoke with participants, WB3C trainers and external experts, including Reza Elgalai from the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT) and Major Marc TEROUANNE of the French Gendarmerie, who travelled to the WB3C specifically to deliver digital forensics training.

The Minister also met with Polish experts from NASK, who are working alongside Slovenia’s URSIV to deliver cybersecurity training focused on disinformation. She also engaged with CIVIPOL experts from the EU4FAST project, who are providing specialised cybercrime and OSINT training to strengthen the fight against migrant smuggling and irregular migration.

Cyber awareness, disinformation and OSINT: three connected perspectives on working safely with information

This week at WB3C, participants from public institutions across the Western Balkans are looking at the information environment from three different but closely connected perspectives: cyber awareness, disinformation and open-source intelligence (OSINT).
The training is delivered by Marcin Napiórkowski, Sylwia Adamczyk and Jakub Orzeszek from NASK – the Polish Research and Academic Computer Network, combining practical cyber hygiene with an understanding of how information is manipulated, verified and analysed online.
The first part of the course focuses on cyber awareness in both private and professional environments. Participants examine common threats from an end-user perspective, incident reporting, protection of email and social media accounts, and the security practices that organisations can put in place to reduce everyday exposure.
From there, the discussion moves to disinformation and the mechanisms that make it effective: filter bubbles, cognitive biases and techniques such as false context and cherry-picking. An important part of the work is not only recognising manipulation, but understanding how institutions can respond and communicate when misleading information begins to affect their reputation or the audiences they serve.
The OSINT component then takes participants into the practical work of finding, verifying and evaluating information from open digital sources. Search techniques, social media and visual-media analysis are combined with exercises in identifying disinformation and checking the reliability of what has been found.
There is also another side to OSINT that is sometimes overlooked: protecting the analyst. Participants are introduced to OPSEC methodologies and operational anonymity, looking at how research can be conducted without unnecessarily exposing the analyst, the organisation or the investigative workflow.
Bringing these three areas together is particularly relevant for public institutions. The same digital environment in which staff communicate and work is also the environment in which information is collected, manipulated, amplified and investigated.
By the end of the course, the objective is therefore not simply to know more tools or terminology, but to be better able to recognise threats, question information, verify sources and work more securely online.
Gilles Schwoerer, our Programme Director, greeted the participants and thanked our partners in URSIV, Urad Vlade Republike Slovenije za informacijsko varnost for funding this training and its continued support to WB3C activities.