New Partnership with Limelight Foundation

The Award

We are delighted to announce that Limelight Foundation has awarded us with a new grant to support our work. The funding will enable us to provide legal help to more journalists, citizen journalists and media outlets throughout Europe over the next three years. Moreover, it will strengthen our ability to bring about long-term change in the region by challenging abusive laws and through building capacity at the grassroots.

“Media Defence is incredibly grateful to Limelight Foundation for recognising the urgent need for legal protection of journalists. This support comes at a time when we are witnessing a disturbing decline in press freedom across Europe. Authoritarianism and populism continue to spread, with the COVID-19 pandemic providing the perfect cover for repressive governments to erode human rights further. Thanks to the generosity of Limelight Foundation, we are better equipped to meeting the growing need for our work.” – Alinda Vermeer, CEO

“Free press is under attack. Globally, and in Europe, too. Without free and independent journalism providing the fuel for public discussion and for holding power to account, democracy is at serious risk. We are therefore proud to work with Media Defence in providing independent media in Europe with the resources to organize their legal defense. And to sound the alarm bell on the decline in press freedom.” – Merel Borger, Director Limelight Foundation

About Limelight Foundation

Limelight Foundation is an independent philanthropic foundation, based in the Netherlands. It was set up by John Caspers, a co-founder and former innovation director at Adyen, in March 2021. It works to support a strong and free ecosystem for independent quality information in the digital age. You can find out more on their website, here.

If you are a journalist, citizen journalist or independent media organisation in need of support, please click here.

If you would like to donate or support our work, please click here.