A Civic Initiative for Reclaiming Digital Autonomy (CIRDA) proposed in Strasbourg

The Civic Initiative for Reclaiming Digital Autonomy (CIRDA) was presented by Pavel Antonov, co-founder and executive editor of BlueLink, during a high-level international conference of the Council of Europe devoted to civic space and democratic renewal, held in Strasbourg on 2–3 February 2026.

The initiative responds to a growing democratic challenge: while digital platforms have expanded freedom of expression and opportunities for civic participation, they have also created a structural dependency of civil society communication on commercial, engagement-driven systems that civil society neither controls nor governs. This dependency increasingly weakens civic autonomy, undermines credibility, and fragments collective democratic space.

CIRDA is conceived as an experimental, civic-led initiative addressing this gap by focusing on what regulation and platform governance alone cannot provide: shared civic norms, responsible communicative practices, and normative capacity within civil society itself.

The initiative was introduced in the session “Digital civic space – innovation, inclusion, and protection”, which examined how digital technologies are reshaping civic participation while also generating risks such as surveillance, disinformation, exclusion, and the concentration of communicative power in a small number of digital platforms.

By developing and testing voluntary, practice-based approaches to normative autonomy in digital civic communication, CIRDA aims to help civil society organisations remain effective, credible, and democratically oriented in platform-dominated digital environments.

From journalism to reclaiming digital autonomy

Presenting CIRDA, Pavel Antonov traced the initiative back to his long-standing engagement with journalism, civil society, and digital communication in post-socialist Europe. He recalled that BlueLink was created in the mid-1990s with the explicit expectation that digital communication would help overcome the structural limits of journalism and contribute to democratic renewal.

BlueLink’s early work focused on strengthening environmental and public-interest journalism in Bulgaria and the region, including training programmes for journalists, editors, and civil society actors aimed at improving the quality, depth, and continuity of coverage on environmental and civic issues.

Through initiatives combining reporting, networking, and capacity-building, BlueLink worked to connect journalists with environmental defenders, NGOs, and local communities, while also supporting civil society actors in developing credible, responsible communication practices in increasingly constrained media environments.

“Digital tools were expected to widen participation, bypass entrenched gatekeepers, and strengthen civic voices,” Antonov noted. “They did expand freedom of expression. But over time, they also produced a new form of dependency, shaped by commercial platform logics that civil society does not control.”

Drawing on this experience, Antonov argued that digital platforms have created a business-driven communicative monoculture, optimised for engagement, visibility, and monetisation. While efficient, this monoculture weakens key democratic functions of civil society communication.

From practice to theory – and back again

Alongside his work with BlueLink, Antonov returned to more traditional editorial practice as editor of Green Horizon, the regional environmental magazine of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, and became involved in training journalists and activists together.

“Again and again, we encountered the same problem,” Antonov explained. “Journalism struggled to cover environmental issues adequately – not just in quantity, but in quality, depth, and continuity. This was not about individual failure, but about structural limits.”

These questions led Antonov to pursue doctoral research at The Open University (UK), where his dissertation examined travelling norms of journalism – how journalistic norms are shaped, constrained, and transformed by political, economic, and technological pressures across different contexts.

The research engaged with the concept of normative orders in journalism – societal norms related to public interest and democracy, professional norms such as verification and accountability, and business norms linked to sustainability and resources – and analysed how their balance shifts under market and platform pressure.

The dissertation is available through the Open Research Online repository of The Open University.

“CIRDA brings this theoretical work back into practice,” Antonov said, “by asking whether civil society communication can also operate under plural normative orders, rather than being absorbed entirely into platform-driven business logic.”

Global digital governance: APC, WSIS and IGF

The conceptualisation of CIRDA has also been shaped by BlueLink’s and Antonov’s long-term engagement in global digital policy spaces, including the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

BlueLink is a long-standing member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), aligning its work with APC’s principles on human rights, social justice, and democratic governance of digital technologies.

Antonov is currently a member of the APC Board, contributing to the organisation’s strategic work on digital rights, civil society capacity-building, and internet governance.

The CIRDA idea was further developed through discussions at the IGF 2025 in Oslo, where civil society actors, researchers, and policymakers debated the limits of platform governance and the need for stronger civic agency in shaping digital communication norms.

These discussions reinforced the view that legal and technical solutions, while essential, are insufficient without parallel efforts to strengthen normative autonomy and responsibility within civil society itself.

What CIRDA proposes

CIRDA is not a regulatory project and does not seek to replace legal frameworks or institutional oversight. Nor does it aim to turn civil society organisations into media outlets. Instead, it focuses on voluntary, practice-based self-regulation and collective learning among civic actors.

The initiative proposes to explore, test, and refine shared civic norms for digital communication, selectively drawing on journalistic traditions such as:

• public-interest justification – making explicit why and for whom civic communication matters;
• transparency – regarding goals, funding, partnerships, and communication strategies;
• verification and correction – proportionate practices to strengthen trust and accountability;
• responsibility for impact – reflecting on how communication affects inclusion, polarisation, and democratic deliberation.

In practical terms, CIRDA envisages:

• peer learning and exchange among civil society organisations operating in different political, cultural, and digital contexts;
• pilot activities testing how shared normative guidance can strengthen credibility, inclusion, and autonomy online;
• documentation and reflection on successes, limits, and unintended consequences;
• dialogue with institutions and regulators on how civic self-regulation can complement policy and legal frameworks.

BlueLink has issued an open call for expressions of interest and support from civil society organisations, journalists, researchers, civic technologists, and institutional partners interested in contributing to the development of CIRDA.

Conference on civic space and democratic renewal

Antonov's presentation of CIRDA (photo above)  took place during the international conference “Shaping democratic renewal: civic space and the path to a New Democratic Pact for Europe”, hosted by the Council of Europe at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg.

The conference addressed the growing pressure on civic space across Europe, including legislative restrictions, harassment of human rights defenders, shrinking funding opportunities, and the impact of digital technologies on democratic participation.

The event forms part of the Council of Europe’s work towards a New Democratic Pact for Europe, building on the Reykjavík Principles for Democracy.

Digital civic space, regulation, and the EU Digital Services Act

Discussions in the digital civic space session highlighted that strengthening democracy online requires a combination of effective regulation, institutional safeguards, and strong civic capacity.

In this context, Antonov reaffirmed BlueLink’s support for the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), in line with the organisation’s public statement of 31 December 2025, which emphasised the importance of the DSA for transparency, accountability, and the protection of fundamental rights online.

At the same time, he argued that regulation alone cannot address all democratic challenges of digital communication. CIRDA was presented as a complementary civic response, focusing on shared norms, responsibility, and democratic orientation within everyday civic communication.

Support and calling for interest and action

BlueLink will continue to contribute to this process, including through the further development of CIRDA, engagement with civil society partners, and dialogue with European and international institutions.

Organisations and individuals interested in joining or supporting CIRDA are invited to contact BlueLink and take part in shaping the next phase of the initiative.