Round Table – “Counter-information, resistance, existence: The media at the heart of the anti-gender battle”

Context:
We are living through a pivotal moment for European democracies. Driven by the far right, the anti-gender wave is gaining momentum, combining ideological offensives, symbolic violence, and the reshaping of media ecosystems.
Critical spaces of expression—feminist, antiracist, queer—are increasingly marginalized, delegitimized, or attacked in a climate where hateful discourse is normalized, even in so-called “mainstream” media.

This cultural battle is being fought in and through the media. The far right fully understands their strategic power: it infiltrates, finances, and uses them to shape its narratives. In France, for example, the concentration of media under conservative groups like Bolloré’s contributes to an ideological homogenization in which minority perspectives are silenced or distorted.
Dominant media narratives construct a reactionary, securitized vision of the world in which feminist, LGBTQIA+, and decolonial struggles are discredited, pathologized, or criminalized.

On digital platforms (X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube…), algorithmic logics deepen polarization. Far-right discourses flourish while feminist, queer, or antiracist content is censored, delisted, or targeted by harassment campaigns.
Marginalized voices are not just weakened—they are rendered illegible.

This media offensive is not a passing trend. It is part of a broader ideological project—neoliberal, authoritarian, and transnational—that instrumentalizes “freedom of expression” to delegitimize struggles and reassert a patriarchal, racist, and capitalist order.

And yet, resistance is growing. Independent media outlets, journalist collectives, artists, and activists are inventing new ways of storytelling rooted in social struggles: zines, podcasts, newsletters, free radio, video channels.
These practices, often situated on the margins, are building a counter-hegemonic media landscape—subversive, collective, and creative.

This roundtable, one of the highlights of the Margins on Fire! festival, will center the voices of those who refuse to surrender the terrain of narrative. The festival, shaped by an intersectional and transnational feminist dynamic, extends the reflections of the European project FIERCE in a political gesture of sharing, resistance, and transmission.

Session Objectives:

Examine the central role of media in far-right and anti-gender/anti-migrant strategies.
Analyze the effects of media concentration on democratic pluralism and the visibility of social struggles.
Highlight resistance efforts led by independent, feminist, queer, antiracist, and grassroots media.
Explore how digital virality boosts hate speech, and how algorithmic censorship operates today.
Foster alliances between those who, from the margins, are building alternative narratives.
Share and co-create tools, formats, and media practices capable of disrupting the dominant order.

Location: Les Arches Citoyennes, 3 Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, 75004 Paris

Date & Time: Saturday, June 7 | 12:45 PM – 2:15 PM

Language(s): English & French (simultaneous interpretation)

Participants: Sandra Alloush, Zsofi Borsi, Léane Alestra, Sian Norris, moderated by Rozenn LeCarboulec