June 2026: Publication Recommendations on Democracy, Information Integrity, Rule of Law and Civic Participation

This article brings together a selection of recent publications from TED members and partner organisations, offering insights across rule of law, anti-corruption, information integrity, media resilience, civic space and political participation.

Several publications begin with broader reflections on the state of democracy and its links to peace and security. Carnegie Europe’s article The EU Common Security and Defense Policy: Moving Away From Democracy Support argues that democracy-related commitments risk being sidelined by narrower security priorities within the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. ECDPM’s Strategic Choices to Connect Peace, Defence and Deterrence complements this analysis by warning that the EU’s shift towards military readiness could marginalise conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Forum 2000’s report Challenges to Democracy in Latin America identifies key challenges for democracy in the region, with a focus on institutions, electoral bodies, organised crime and civil society’s role in defending democratic norms.

Moving to rule of law and anti-corruption, Building on a Firm Foundation: Why Strengthening the Rule of Law Must be Africa’s Priority, a joint HiiL–Mo Ibrahim Foundation research and policy brief, argues that accessible and reliable justice systems are essential for stability, investment and long-term development.  U4’s Advancing Human Rights and Anti-Corruption: Innovative Practices from Latin America shows how actors in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela have sought to bridge anti-corruption and human-rights agendas through new indicators, strategic litigation and arguments around collective harm. 

Civil society and political participation also feature in recent publications by the TED Network Members. EED’s Annual Report 2025 provides, among other things, a broad overview of the challenges implementing partners are facing in their support to civil society. European Partnership for Democracy also attempts to address these challenges in its report entitled New Approaches to Defending Global Civil Society, in which the TED member argues that increasingly severe threats to civic actors require new approaches to protection and support.

According to some publications, these new approaches may come from the engagement of women and young people. ODI’s research report How Women’s Movements Lead Demands for Democracy in the Face of Backlash and Politicised Religion highlights the central role of feminist organising in democratic struggles, despite growing backlash from authoritarianism, politicised religion and shrinking civic space. #JusticeForOchanya: Nigeria’s Soro Soke Generation is Still Speaking Up by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung examines intergenerational feminist mobilisation in Nigeria and the role of decentralised digital activism in sustaining public pressure.

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung has also reported on recent “Gen Z” movements across the world. In  Gen Z: Voices of a Global Generation, it brings together reports, essays, commentary and audio on youth-led democratic mobilisation, framing Gen Z protests as demands for more responsive, inclusive and effective political systems. The think tank has also developed this idea by proposing two case studies: From Screens to Streets: Decoding Bangladesh’s Gen Z July Uprising and Gen Z Against the State: Democracy in Crisis in Madagascar.

A substantial number of recent publications focus on information integrity and the challenges faced by media worldwide. Two publications provide a global overview. First, the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index offers a stark global benchmark for the state of the information space. It finds that press freedom has reached a 25-year low, with more than half of all countries now classified in the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for the first time in the Index’s history. Second, DW Akademie’s State of Media Development Report 2026 takes stock of the conditions facing organisations working to expand and strengthen spaces for reliable information. Communications around the report underline that “hyper-competition” is not a viable answer for the sector, while the report’s launch framing highlights the linked challenges of funding, local ownership and adaptation.

Fondation Hirondelle’s publications, Providing Unbiased Information and Creating Spaces for Dialogue During Electoral Cycles in Fragile Contexts and Strengthening Information Integrity: Towards a Preventive and Inclusive Approach to Disinformation, both provide further insights into the discussions on information integrity in electoral settings and how to move towards a broader strategy of promoting information integrity. Several other publications focus on practical responses to disinformation. IMS’s Catalogue of Scalable Solutions presents scalable approaches to countering disinformation and strengthening democratic resilience. Also from IMS, Unlocking Local Capital addresses the closely related question of sustainable media financing. It argues that healthier information environments require locally anchored and locally managed capital systems, rather than continued dependence on traditional international donor flows.

Finally, several publications examine the issue from a broader systemic perspective. Hybrid CoE’s paper Social Identities and Democratic Vulnerabilities: Learning from Examples of Targeted Disinformation looks at how identity-based divisions are manipulated in contemporary information environments and argues for long-term investment in social cohesion and trust-building. Still from Hybrid CoE, Countering Disinformation in the Euro-Atlantic: Strengths and gaps highlights emerging and innovative tools to counter disinformation. EPD’s Strengthening Digital Rights in West Africa and the Sahel Region links information integrity to digital rights and civic space, highlighting how surveillance, internet shutdowns and disinformation increasingly shape the democratic environment. The Council of Europe’s Resisting Disinformation – Ten Building Blocks to strengthen information integrity offers a comprehensive policy framework for strengthening information integrity, covering national strategy, research, media literacy, quality journalism, electoral integrity and accountability in the digital ecosystem.