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Where is the line between freedom of speech and dangerous populism? What kind of threats do radicalism and ideological manipulations pose for the democratic world? Steve Bannon is the infamous popularizer of far-right ideology who managed Donald Trump’s election campaign and later helped consolidate the far-right movements in Europe. Who is this man? How did he become an influential figure in the European political scene after resigning from the US President’s Administration? Natalia Humeniuk, a journalist and the founder of the Social Interest Journalism Lab, and Maksym Butkevych, a human rights advocate, journalist and No Borders project coordinator, will discuss The Brink by Alison Klayman and talk about how words and skilled self-promotion can become a dangerous weapon.

Natalia Humeniuk is a Ukrainian journalist and the founder of the Social Interest Journalism Lab. In 2013–20, she was a special correspondent for Hromadske; in 2015–19, served as the head of Hromadske Television NGO. She is the editor of Hromadske and LSE’s Beyond East and West project, which researches the attitudes towards history among Ukrainians. She specializes in international politics and conflicts. As a reporter, she has worked in over 60 countries. Natalia is the author of the books Lost Island: A book of reports from the occupied Crimea (2020) and Maidan Takhrir: In search of the lost revolution (2015) about the Arab Spring events. Since the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the war, she has been covering the events in Donbas and Crimea.

Maksym Butkevych is a human rights advocate, journalist, coordinator of the No Borders project. He is a philosopher and anthropologist by education. He worked for Ukrainian TV channels (as an international journalist), for BBC Ukraine, at the UNHCR. During the Maidan protests, he was a volunteer for Hromadske Radio and participated in human rights protest initiatives. Now he coordinates the No Borders project, a non-governmental initiative which, since 2006, has been working on providing aid to refugees and asylum seekers in Ukraine, on opposing discrimination and xenophobia. For many years, he has been a moderator of Docudays UA screenings and events. He is also a consultant for the Public Health Alliance (Ukraine).