Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Technology

Estonia is to give 50,000 euros to DDP and the money will be allocated from the sums meant for humanitarian and development aid in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry said. The money is meant to be used for the foundation's next year's activities.

According to Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand the protection of internet freedom is one of Estonia's priorities connected to human rights. "Freedom of speech and expression is a human right also on the internet and supporting that freedom is as important as all other activities connected with the protection and promotion of human rights," she said.

The Digital Defenders Partnership is a competitive grant making mechanism providing support to organizations and individuals working in the digital emergency field. It was established to provide rapid response to a range of threats to internet freedom: from supporting bloggers and cyber activists who find themselves under attack, to facilitating the deployment of emergency internet in countries where the internet is not free or not accessible.

The DDP has its origins in the Freedom Online Coalition, and is managed by Hivos, an international NGO based in the Netherlands. As an initial investment, the governments of the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) have dedicated financial support.  

In 2015, the fund has helped 170 organizations and directly supported 1,063 people.