Picture Freedom to raise First Amendment awareness

Picture Freedom, a nationwide scholarship contest, launches online Feb. 22.

Picture Freedom, a nationwide scholarship contest,launches online Feb. 22.

Students 13 years and older are invited toshare photos and artwork that illustrate freedom of expression on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The contest willaward 25 winners with a$1,000 scholarship.

Picture Freedom aims to build awareness of the First Amendment by encouraging young Americans to reflect on how freedom of expression enriches their lives and strengthens their nation.

News organizations are encouraged to help promotePicture Freedomby writing about it, publishing a guest column available at 1ForAll.us, or by placingmedia ads in print and online.

In the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and threats againstfilmmakers, its imperative that we not take free speech for granted, said Ken Paulson, president of the Newseum Institutes First Amendment Center, dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University and founder of 1 for All. Picture Freedom is designed to encourage classroom conversations and engagement with our most-cherished freedoms.

Shining a light on the First Amendment is one of the most important things we can do, said Arnie Robbins, executive director of the American Society of News Editors. Its vital not just for journalists, of course, but for citizens to know and cherish and value the freedoms we have.

Picture Freedom is the perfect campaign to engage students in thinking about their First Amendment freedoms, said Mark Newton,president of the JournalismEducation Association.Students are using the social media they so often get accused of abusing in a positive way. Most importantly, students are using their First Amendment freedom to share their ideas of freedom in creative and profound ways. I suspect students who participate in Picture Freedom will engage their peers and others to think more about the overall importance of all the freedoms afforded to all of us.

Students in this nation are among the few groups where full First Amendment rights are sometimes withheld under the law, said Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute. This competition is yet another way that students can both support their free expression rights and demand that school officials and the courts roll back limits not placed on other citizens.

The contest will run from midnight ESTSunday, Feb. 22,to 11:59 p.m.PST Saturday, Feb.28, timed to coincide with the Journalism Education Associations Scholastic Journalism Week. Students can enter by posting their original images to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #PictureFreedom.

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Picture Freedom to raise First Amendment awareness