From 17 to 19 June 2026, Khanty-Mansiysk hosted the VIII International Conference “Tangible and Intangible Impact of Information and Communication in the Digital Age”, organised in the framework of the implementation in Russia of the UNESCO Information for All Programme and the XVII International IT Forum with BRICS and SCO participation. One of the key events was the thematic discussion “Information Literacy in the New Digital Environment: Trust, Confidentiality, Responsibility”, moderated by Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Project Officer in Education at UNESCO IITE.
“Analogue Approaches No Longer Work”
Opening the discussion, Ms. Murovana noted that media and information literacy is a skill that must be developed throughout life, as communication and content formats are constantly changing. While the basic set of competencies remains critically important, traditional approaches to media education are gradually losing their relevance as they were historically designed for analogue media. The main question the expert community needs to answer is how new technologies, and artificial intelligence in particular, are transforming the digital environment itself, and how the understanding of media and information literacy is changing in this context.
Digital Hygiene and Zero Trust Policy
Mr. Vladimir Bebekh, Director of the Astra Media Professional Communications Agency and Member of the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme, took the floor with an overview report on the challenges of the digital era. He touched upon the spread of deepfakes and the issue of trust in AI among young people, drawing attention to the generational gap in the perception of digital security.
Adults, the speaker noted, are interested in the topic but do not know where to acquire the necessary knowledge. Young people, on the other hand, are often confident that they already possess sufficient competencies. Mr. Bebekh emphasised the importance of the zero trust policy—a critical approach where any digital information should be questioned, and digital footprints must be minimised.
Commenting on this presentation, Ms. Murovana made an important addition: the zero trust approach should be applied selectively—primarily to topics that are vital, such as finance or health, when the information received influences the making of fundamentally significant decisions.
Three Pillars of Cognitive Immunity
Ms. Tatiana Golubtsova, Vice-President of the Psychology-Business-Media Association and Project Manager of the House of Media Literacy of the Karaganda Region (Republic of Kazakhstan), continued the discussion on trust and manipulation, presenting the experience of Central Asia in the context of global regulation of cognitive resilience.
She demonstrated a comparative matrix of global AI governance, where regions (China, the EU, and others) are compared across key parameters: model of regulation, information disclosure standards, psychological protection, and law enforcement focus. According to her, a reactive regulatory model still prevails in Central Asian countries. That is why, the speaker emphasised, it is necessary to develop cognitive immunity based on the ability to use both technological tools and legislative frameworks.
“True user protection in the era of cognitive conflicts and deepfakes is built on three pillars: technological verification, effective legal regulation, and the cognitive resilience of society,” Ms. Golubtsova concluded.
Libraries as Role Models
Presenting practices for teaching media literacy, Ms. Therese San Diego Torres, President of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communications, emphasised the importance of active youth participation in discussions on the regulation and rules of AI use. According to her, teachers need to work closely with young people, taking into account the fact that libraries today are becoming important role models for behaviour in the digital environment.
The speaker stated that within the framework of improving media literacy, the educator’s task is to form stable skills in students: to teach them not only fact-checking but also context-checking, without which a full understanding of the media environment is impossible, as well as practices for recognising manipulative techniques.
Cyberbullying: Four Security Strategies
After that, the discussion moved to the realm of policy and social protection. Mr. Aftab Hossain, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication at Daffodil International University (Bangladesh), presented a report on information security strategies using his country as an example, where millions of people fall victim to cyberbullying every day. His study identified four main strategies that victims of online abuse are forced to resort to:
- digital self-defence through built-in platform functions (e.g., the blocking feature in social networks);
- seeking official support (however, laws are not always oriented towards protecting people, so the speaker noted the de-facto absence of institutional support for victims in Bangladesh);
- avoidance as a survival strategy (complete “self-exclusion” from the digital space);
- transformation of the victim into an aggressor.
Mr. Hossain highlighted the importance of research in the field of cybersecurity and the need to study the practices of Global South countries to form a more comprehensive picture of global challenges.
Digital Inclusion and Data Diversity
Ms. Marie Madeleine Enganemben Bekemen, Senior Staff in Charge of Monitoring Cooperation between Cameroon and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Ministry of External Relations of Cameroon, concluded the session. Her presentation was dedicated to the issues of digital inclusion and the need to form a broad framework for governance and lawmaking in the field of artificial intelligence.
The speaker emphasised the importance of involving African countries in the digital environment. This is necessary primarily so that AI models are trained on diverse datasets, which will help avoid cultural and regional biases in the algorithms’ performance.
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The International Conference “Tangible and Intangible Impact of Information and Communication in the Digital Age” is a significant annual platform for international dialogue about the future of digital society. The main goal of the Forum is to comprehend the profound transformations brought by new technologies and to find a balance between innovative development, ethics, and human security.
The Conference was organised by the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, with the support of the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Ugra, the Permanent Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, and the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO.
The focus of the participants was on such pressing issues as the global regulation of artificial intelligence, overcoming the digital divide, cognitive resilience, and the preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity on the web. The high-level Forum was attended by over 150 experts from 35 countries, including politicians, diplomats, heads and specialists of educational, cultural, scientific, communication and information institutions, publishing houses, media, as well as representatives of NGOs and the private sector.
Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Project Officer in Education at UNESCO IITE, also moderated the plenary session “Global Changes in the Field of Information and Communication in the Era of AI,” where issues of regulating generative AI content, ethical challenges and risks of improper use of technologies, protection of personal data and intellectual rights, as well as the impact of AI on human cognitive functions and critical thinking in modern society were discussed.
The recording of the thematic discussion “Information Literacy in the New Digital Environment: Trust, Confidentiality, Responsibility”, moderated by Ms. Murovana, as well as recordings of other plenary sessions and discussion panels, are available on the official website of the Forum.