Reporting the Machines – (Mis)Understanding Digital Sovereignty

Publix gGmbH

Date

Thu, Dec 10, 2026

Admission

1:15 PM

Start

1:45 PM

End

8:00 PM

Promoter

Publix gGmbH

Speakers

May Bulman, Svea Eckert, Maria Exner, Adrienne Fichter, Justin Hendrix, Jonathan Kemper, Fatemeh Khodadadian, Julia Kloiber, Julia Pohle, Nico Schmidt, Matthias Spielkamp, Frederic von Vlahovits

Few terms shape the digital policy debate as strongly as "digital sovereignty". In June, the European Commission's Tech Sovereignty Package declared the reduction of critical digital dependencies a European task. Yet the more often the term is used, the more pressing the questions behind it become: Why is digital sovereignty worth striving for in the first place? Do the key actors in politics, business and civil society mean the same thing when they talk about it? And what does sovereignty actually come down to?

With the conference series "Reporting the Machines", Publix brings together journalists, researchers, civil society, policymakers and tech practitioners. This year we take on the misunderstandings of the sovereignty debate and discuss the role of journalism, which reports on these dependencies while being caught up in them.

The conference is part of the Publix Tech Journalism Fellowship. It is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and Stiftung Mercator Schweiz, in cooperation with 1014 Deutschland, MIZ Babelsberg and the taz Panter Stiftung.

The conference will be held in English.

Program

1:15-1:45 pm
Entrance

1:45-1:55 pm
Welcome by Maria Exner

11:55-2:10 pm
From Ethical AI to Digital Sovereignty
Kick-off with Publix Tech-Journalism-Fellows Fatemeh Khodadadian and Jonathan Kemper

2:10-2:30 pm
Sovereign Is Whoever Decides on the State of Exception: Artificial Intelligence Between Mass Psychosis and Critical Infrastructure
Opening Keynote by Matthias Spielkamp

2:30-2:50 pm
Interdependence by Design: Rethinking Digital Sovereignty
Keynote by Julia Pohle

2:50-3:30 pm
Break and networking

3:30-4:30 pm
Reporting from Dependency: Newsrooms, Platforms, and the Limits of Independence
Panel discussion Adrienne Fichter und Julia Kloiber
Moderation: Svea Eckert

4:30-4:40 pm
Break

4:40-5:45 pm
Lightning Talks and follow-up discussion

Behind the Cloud: Mapping Europe’s Data Centre Boom by Nico Schmidt
Tony Blair and the Billionaire: How Governments Are Advised Into Dependency by May Bulman
Who Owns Your Research? AI Sovereignty in Journalistic Practice by Frederic von Vlahovits

5:45-6:30 pm
Break and networking

6:30-8:00 pm
Digital Sovereignty: The Opportunity Europe Must Seize Now
Justin Hendrix (Tech Policy Press) in conversation on America’s tech power and the takeaways for Europe