Selected NFSW Activities 2008
AOL Search, an NFSW Promotional Partner, included a customized module for searches related to free speech during and following the week. The module featured the NFSW logo, the headline "Celebrate Free Speech," and a link to the NFSW website. This ad module is a proven mechanism for increasing visibility for NFSW and its website.
Clear Channel produced radio public service announcements (PSAs) for its stations nationwide stressing the value of free speech. Clear Channel also prepared a version that any radio broadcaster could use, which could be downloaded using the link on the home page of this website.
National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF) sponsored a nationwide contest for college students to create PSAs promoting free speech. Communications students competed for a top prize of $3,000 toward tuition. After judging on Oct. 10, the winning PSAs were available on the NABEF website, and through the NFSW website, for broadcasters to download.
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) signed on as Partnering Organization for 2008. On Oct. 1, CEA ran a lengthy announcement about NFSW in its SmartBrief electronic newsletter that reached more than 70,000 top executives.
National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) posted the NFSW logo and link on the home page of its website (www.ncta.com). NCTA alerted its member companies about the week, and invited them to link to the NFSW site and to use NFSW to highlight any First Amendment-related activities in which they were engaged. On Oct. 20, NCTA posted a statement by its president and CEO Kyle McSlarrow on its website.
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, Va., sponsored a Free Speech Poetry & Songwriting Contest. It was billed as “a poetry and songwriting competition celebrating the creative heights that can only be achieved when artists are free to express themselves on any theme, subject, or idea.” Contestants had to submit original entries by Oct. 10, with winners announced Oct. 21. Joining the Center as co-sponsors were the Music Resource Center and WCNR 106.1 FM “The Corner.” The contest featured celebrity judges and a $500 grand prize.
National Communication Association (NCA) sent NFSW information to college members of its three organizations: Lambda Pi Eta, Sigma Chi Eta, and NCA Student Clubs. NCA also started reaching out to its student members via Facebook and MySpace, providing communications majors with opportunities to connect with each other and to build a community online. NCA used these networking sites to get out the NFSW word and to encourage student groups to share what they were doing on their campuses to celebrate NFSW.
Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) kicked off its 2009 Five Freedoms PSA Contest for high school and middle school students on Oct. 21. Students produced 30-second and 15-second videos about any or all of the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment. In 2007 the contest received more than 350 high school entries. In 2008 RTNDF invited middle schools to join the competition as well. This was the fourth year that RTNDF sponsored the contest under the auspices of its High School Broadcast Journalism (HSBJ) Project with the Student Television Network (largest organization of high school broadcast teachers) and SchoolTube (the teacher-monitored video-sharing website). The contest was supported by a generous grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. To see last year’s winners, go to http://hsbj.org/Students/5freedoms_win/. Information on the 2009 Five Freedoms Contest is available at www.hsbj.org. Contest deadline was Feb. 20, 2009.
The Thomas Jefferson Center and The Media Institute released a paper Oct. 23 in their joint Speaking Freely series by Dahlia Lithwick titled “Dispatch From the Wars on Free Listening.” Lithwick said that technology enables people to hear only the views they agree with, that political discourse has been reduced to shouting, and that no one is listening. She urged people to stop and listen, because free speech is meaningless without free listening. The paper was available in hard copy from both organizations, and online at www.tjcenter.org and www.mediainstitute.org.
The Media Institute bestowed its Freedom of Speech Award upon Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corporation, at its Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet on Oct. 21 in Washington, D.C. The award was presented by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Noted First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams of Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York was the keynote speaker. The banquet is held annually to coincide with National Freedom of Speech Week.
Media Law Resource Center in New York City, through its educational affiliate, the MLRC Institute, organized a full calendar of presentations around the country on publishing online and reporter’s privilege. All of these MLRC Institute events (with the exception of the Philadelphia conference) were co-sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (http://www.abffe.com/). Presenters included highly regarded communications attorneys, professors, journalists, and authors. The McCormick Foundation provided funding for this MLRC Institute initiative.The MLRC Institute hosted events in Portland, Ore.; Pleasanton, Calif.; Brookline, Mass.; New Albany, Ind.; and Philadelphia.
