Free Speech TV & Co-Founder Jon Stout to Receive 2010 Professional Freedom & Responsibility Award

DENVER, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Free Speech TV and co-founder Jon Stout will be honored on Thursday, August 5, 2010 with the 2010 Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award, presented by the Cultural & Critical Studies Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.  Monte Whaley and the Denver Post will also share this year's award.

The annual Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award recognizes individuals and organizations for a profound commitment to free expression; ethics; media criticism and accountability; racial, gender, and cultural inclusiveness; and public service. Past recipients include Bill Moyers, George Seldes, Molly Ivins, Noam Chomsky, Nina Totenberg, and Studs Terkel.

"I am proud to have General Manager Jon Stout and Free Speech TV as our 2010 Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award winner. They are a reflection of a long-standing tradition of excellence that has marked this award's history," said Bob Trumpbour, Head of the CCS Division.

"Free Speech TV is an exemplar for what all news organizations should work to achieve."

"At a time when much of the national media ceaselessly chases minor celebrity events, covering them ad-nauseum, it is refreshing that Free Speech TV is committed to bringing the truly important news of the day to a public that has been thirsting for quality journalism," Trumpbour continued.

"What Jon and his colleagues at Free Speech TV have done to promote an active, intelligent, and engaged citizenry is a model for what we hope our many students will aspire to achieve."

Monte Whaley, the Denver Post's regional reporter in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, will be honored for his coverage of such topics as Native American issues, displaced trailer park residents, sexual abuse, and community responses to complex constitutional issues. Whalen and the Denver Post were nominated for national recognition by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] for their courageous reporting of the Angie Zapata murder. The reporting of this brutal hate crime put a human face on the daily challenges faced by the transgender community.

The award ceremony and panel session will take place on August 5th at 3:15 p.m. at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. The session is entitled "Giving Voice to Those Outside the Power Circle."  Jacque Lambiase of Texas Christian University and Rebecca Kern of Manhattan College will serve as discussants. The event is open to the public.

At the event, Stout will premiere a new video highlighting Free Speech TV's coverage of the recent U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, where 20,000 activists gathered to strategize collaborative ways to create a more just and sustainable future. He will discuss the network's history and mission, as well as its coverage of last month's Netroots Nation progressive bloggers conference in Las Vegas.

"It's an honor," said Stout, "to accept this award on behalf of my colleagues and the many brave media activists and independent journalists who have labored for years on the frontlines of social change to tell the life-changing stories that too often go untold in today's media environment." Added Executive Director Don Rojas, "Free Speech TV humbly thanks AEJMC's Cultural & Critical Studies for this recognition and for its unwavering dedication to journalistic ethics—a quality increasingly in short supply in this age of FOX News-incited Shirley Sherrod debacles."

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (www.aejmc.org) is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level. The Cultural and Critical Studies Division of AEJMC is committed to excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service, with the Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award integrated into its annual program as a highly valued tradition in its long-standing commitment to social justice and ethical journalistic principles.

Free Speech TV (www.freespeech.org) is an independent, non-profit multi-platform digital media pioneer. Promoting voices and perspectives under-represented in the media, Free Speech TV broadcasts and webcasts independently-produced programs addressing social, political, cultural, and environmental issues. Free Speech TV programs include The Thom Hartmann Show, GRITtv with Laura Flanders, Democracy Now!, Gay USA, Enviro Close-Up, and a diverse array of investigative documentaries. Free Speech TV currently reaches 35 million U.S. homes, airing fulltime on DISH Network (channel 9415) and DIRECTV (channel 348) and part-time on over 200 cable affiliates.

SOURCE Free Speech TV