IGF MKD 2019 (North Macedonia IGF) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. On 28 October 2019 the third IGF MKD filled the Makedonski Telekom headquarters in Skopje with over 100 participants from every sector — the forum's biggest edition to date.
2. Three panels tackled disinformation and media literacy, the legal side of IG (IP, human rights, data protection) and cybersecurity, distilled into official messages such as 'education on media literacy is urgently needed in all society segments'.
3. With the incumbent telecom as sponsor and a minister, MPs and the president's office in the room, this was the all-hands edition — a model of how corporate backing can scale up a national IGF.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on IGF MKD 2019 (North Macedonia IGF) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. The Long War on Disinformation — Media-Literacy Education 'Urgent'

Sessions: Panel 1: media — regulation, self-regulation, the fight against disinformation (11:45–12:45)

• The official messages state that 'there is urgent need for education on media literacy in all society segments', that 'fact checking is standard, that needs to be included in any news media by default', and that disinformation, though global, 'can have severe results in local and regional context' [1][2]
• The government's anti-disinformation adviser Marjan Zabrcanec, Media Ethics Council chair Katerina Sinadinovska, news editor Goran Mihajlovski and Metamorphosis' Filip Stojanovski compared state, self-regulatory and civil-society responses [1][2]
• The panel's candid verdict: the fight is a long-term, all-stakeholder process — 'so far there are many initiatives, but they include only limited number of stakeholders' [1][2]

2. The Biggest Edition Yet — T-Mobile Sponsorship and a Merkel Opening

Sessions: Opening session (11:00–11:45)

"Already in 2019, we made the biggest event with the participation and sponsorship by one of the largest Telecom providers worldwide, T-mobile, and as institutional partners we had representatives of the government and the office of the President — that year the global IGF was held in Berlin and Ms. Angela Merkel's opening speech was used as the opening theme of our annual event (from the IGFSA statement, abridged)"
— Aleksandar Icokaev (founding coordinator, 2023 IGFSA statement) [1][3]

• Makedonski Telekom CEO Nikola Ljushev opened, followed by minister Robert Popovski, deputy minister Aleksandar Bajdevski, MP Snezana Kaleska Vanceva and Metamorphosis director Bardhyl Jashari [1][3]
• EuroDIG's Sandra Hoferichter joined online; hosting at the incumbent telecom's headquarters marked a further step from the foreign-ministry and university venues of the first two years [1][3]

3. Cybersecurity and the National IXP — Trust as the Foundation

Sessions: Panel 3: technical and cybersecurity (14:45–15:30)

• The official messages flagged trust as 'a key enabler of the cyber security', called for metrics and reference models to assess national cyber-maturity, and stressed the growing demand for security professionals [1][2]
• Vladislav Bidikov of IXP.MK spoke, and the panel affirmed 'the importance of the national internet exchange points, both from security, but also from the point of view of accessibility to national services and content' — a telling debate about a small country's internet self-reliance [1][2]

4. IP, Human Rights and Data Protection — The Lawyers' Take on Governance

Sessions: Panel 2: legal aspects of internet governance (13:45–14:30)

• React's Eli Mufisovski, Konekt's Nikica Kusinikova and Metamorphosis privacy expert Elena Stojanovska spoke, moderated by law professor Neda Zdraveva [1][2]
• Bundling IP, human rights and data protection into one legal panel has been the forum's signature since 2017, framed by the country's EU-candidate law-reform agenda [1][2]

5. Retrospective Panel — Regional Ties, Youth IGF and Local Government

Sessions: Retrospective session (13:00–13:45)

• Oliana Sula of IGF Albania shared regional best practice, and Marko Paloski reported on the Youth IGF MKD's challenges and next steps [1][2]
• ZELS director Dusica Perisic covered municipal internet-governance initiatives and Prof. Boro Jakimovski the national Digital Forum's policy-advisory role — central, local and regional layers on one panel [1][2]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did this meeting decide?

A. It's a dialogue forum, but it left official messages — media-literacy education is urgent, fact-checking should be standard in every newsroom — reported back to the UN IGF Secretariat.

Q. What stood out most?

A. Scale. The incumbent telecom (a T-Mobile affiliate) hosted and sponsored, and a minister, deputy minister, MPs and the president's office joined 100-plus participants — the forum's high-water mark.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The fact-checking and media-literacy conclusions mirror every country's disinformation debate, and the case for national internet exchange points is a universal lesson in keeping local traffic resilient.

What Is North Macedonia IGF? (for first-time readers)

North Macedonia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2019 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. IGF MKD 2019 Annual Meeting — Annual Report（公式年次報告書PDF・MKD 2019 Messages収録） — IGF MKD（公式サイト） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. Agenda 2019（IGF MKD 2019 プログラム） — IGF MKD（公式サイト） (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Aleksandar Icokaev – Statement of Interest（初代コーディネーターのIGFSA提出声明） — Internet Governance Forum Support Association (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. IGD MKD 2019（全編収録映像・約5時間・2019年10月28日公開） — IGF MKD（YouTubeチャンネル） (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. Messages 2019（年次報告書の公式配布ページ） — IGF MKD（公式サイト） (accessed 2026-07-11)

Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.

Related links

• IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
• Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
• Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/

Revision History

Rev. 1 — published 2 June 2019, 16:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))

— 中澤祐樹