Nico Carpentier and Vaia Doudaki (Charles University, Czech Republic) conducted an international seminar on democratic participation at the Department of Communications, Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) on July 25, 2025.
The two-and-a-half-hour session, titled Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy: A Tool for Democratic Renewal explored innovative approaches to strengthening democratic processes through citizen engagement. The presentation focused on the researchers’ experience organizing a citizen parliament in the Czech Republic as part of the European research project MeDeMAP.
During the seminar, Nico Carpentier and Vaia Doudaki detailed how they brought together 20 Czech citizens to discuss the future of their country’s media landscape, examining issues of media systems, representation, and public participation. The session provided an opportunity to view this democratic innovation through an Indonesian lens.
The presentation covered three key areas: the theoretical foundations of interventionist research, the citizen parliament as a tool for democratic enhancement, and practical lessons from the Czech implementation. Attendees engaged in a robust 30-minute question-and-answer session following the main presentation.
The event was organized by UII’s communications department, with introductory remarks provided by Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, Masduki Masduki, and Zaki Habibi. Herman Felani Tandjung chaired the session, while Muzayin Nazaruddin coordinated the event logistics.
The seminar represents part of ongoing international collaboration in democratic research, offering insights into how citizen participation models developed in European contexts might inform democratic renewal efforts in other regions.