Senator Mark Warner To Deliver Keynote Remarks at Oct. 18 Event
FOR RELEASE: Aug. 18, 2011
Contact: Richard T. Kaplar
The Media Institute
703-243-5700
Arlington, Va., Aug. 18, 2011 – The Media Institute will bestow awards on FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson at its annual Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet Oct. 18 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Comm. McDowell will receive the Freedom of Speech Award, while Stephenson will receive the American Horizon Award. The master of ceremonies will be communications attorney and former FCC chairman Richard E. Wiley.
Comm. McDowell was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President George W. Bush in 2006 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. He has fostered free speech by helping consumers expand their communications choices, and by vigorously opposing regulatory policies that would amount to government censorship of media content. The Freedom of Speech Award will recognize his efforts in these areas.
Randall L. Stephenson is chairman of the board, CEO, and president of AT&T Inc. Stephenson has strengthened AT&T’s position as the world’s largest telecommunications company and as a global leader in mobile broadband and IP-based business communications services. The American Horizon Award will recognize Stephenson’s visionary leadership in promoting the vitality and independence of the telecommunications industry.
Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) will deliver keynote remarks. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008, and serves on the Senate’s Banking, Budget, Commerce, and Intelligence committees. From 2002 to 2006, Senator Warner served as governor of Virginia.
The black-tie event will also celebrate the seventh annual Free Speech Week (FSW), Oct. 17-23, 2011.
The Media Institute is a nonprofit research foundation specializing in communications policy and the First Amendment. For more information, visit the Institute online at www.mediainstitute.org.