---
title: "Ex-president Ilves receives the Digital Freedom Award"
id: "21645"
type: "post"
slug: "ex-president-ilves-receives-digital-freedom-award"
published_at: "2016-11-28T16:16:03+00:00"
modified_at: "2016-11-28T16:31:51+00:00"
url: "https://estonianworld.com/technology/ex-president-ilves-receives-digital-freedom-award/"
markdown_url: "https://estonianworld.com/technology/ex-president-ilves-receives-digital-freedom-award.md"
excerpt: "The former Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has received the Digital Freedom Award for his contribution to promoting digital culture in the Baltics, Northern Europe […]"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Technology"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "Baltics"
  - "e-Estonia"
  - "Latvia"
  - "Toomas Hendrik Ilves"
taxonomy_post_format:
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publisher: "Estonian World"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Sten Hankewitz"
author_url: "https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/"
---

# Ex-president Ilves receives the Digital Freedom Award

![Image](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Toomas-Hendrik-Ilves-1024x682.jpg)

By  [Sten Hankewitz](https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/)
  ·  November 28, 2016  · [Technology](https://estonianworld.com/category/technology/)
 · 1 minute of reading

### The former Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has received the Digital Freedom Award for his contribution to promoting digital culture in the Baltics, Northern Europe and beyond.

The award was established by the Digital Freedom Festival to prize exceptional people who have fostered digital freedom, raised awareness of opportunities and challenges the digital revolution can bring and inspired people to look for innovative approaches how to solve worldwide problems.

[https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Toomas-Hendrik-Ilves-photo-by-Hindrek-Maasik.jpg](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Toomas-Hendrik-Ilves-photo-by-Hindrek-Maasik.jpg)
“President Ilves has sent a clear and loud message that the Baltics is a global heartland of digital innovation and has inspired people far beyond the borders of Estonia,” Uldis Leiterts, the co-founder of the Digital Freedom Festival, said in a statement.

“Let us give our very first Digital Freedom Award to the personality, statesman, visionary and president – Toomas Hendrik Ilves – to recognise his input into the values and dreams we have in the Digital Freedom Festival.”

The Digital Freedom Festival is a global technology, policy, startup and lifestyle festival, gathering new technology and startup entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors, experts, journalists and students from all over the world, taking place in in Riga, Latvia, 27-29 November.

I

Cover: Toomas Hendrik Ilves accepting his award (photo courtesy of the Digital Freedom Festival.)

## About The Author

![Avatar photo](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/local-avatars/15/1707599474-bpfull-100x100.jpg)

[Sten Hankewitz](https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/)
Sten Hankewitz is a lifelong journalist and the Executive Editor at Estonian World. Having lived in Estonia, Spain, the UK and all around the US, he now resides in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He loves to write and besides working at Estonian World, he [writes books](https://estonianworld.com/culture/the-grand-illusion-estonian-worlds-sten-hankewitz-publishes-a-novel-about-growing-up-in-the-soviet-union/)
 and contributes to other outlets. He has strong convictions and shows them unashamedly. You can follow Sten on [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@stenhankewitz)
, [X](https://twitter.com/stenhankewitz)
 and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/shankewitz/)
. You can also [email him](mailto:sten@estonianworld.com)
.