The Playboy Foundation named a journalist, a law professor, a team of movie producers and three others as the recipients of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, Thursday.
The awards are meant to honor individuals who have made important contributions to protect and enhance First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.
“A principal guarantee of freedom is the First Amendment. Now more than ever, it is important that we honor the men and women who are on the font line protecting that freedom,” said Hugh M. Hefner, Playboy magazine founder who established the foundation in 1979.
The 2006 winners were:
• Paisley Dodds, an Associated Press reporter who wrote on the activities at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of thousands of documents many of which ultimately revealed numerous complaints about prisoner abuse.
• Patricia Waterhouse, Ph.D., who heads Ohio Citizens for Science and who was noted for organizing a successful coalition to preserve science education in Ohio public schools after religious organizers attempted to pressure educators to move away from science and toward religious teachings on life’s origins.
• Geoffrey R. Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School who wrote “Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism.” The book calls for the protection of First Amendment Rights, especially during times of crisis.
• Jack Spadaro, director of the National Mine Safety and Health Academy, who despite personal sacrifice, blew the whistle on irresponsible mining practices, corporate collusion and government cover-up following a mining disaster.
• Shelby Knox, a student who was the subject of the film “The Education of Shelby Knox,” and who challenged abstinence-only sex education and medical misinformation at her Lubbock, Texas high school. She also fought for medically accurate information on sexuality and lesbian and gay rights.
• Marion Lipschutz & Rose Rosenblatt, producers/directors of “The Education of Shelby Knox,” which exposed the consequences of abstinence-only education at a Texas high school.
• Rhett Jackson, former president of the American Booksellers Association and owner of the Happy Bookseller, who has committed his life to the First Amendment and social justice and dedicated himself to the idela of free exchange of ideas.
The winners were selected by an independent panel of judges, that included Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, and Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
