Press releases & protests

For Immediate Release                                                                              Contact: Mark Bench, 703.715.9811
                                                                                                                                   embench@wpfc.org
 

Top U.S. First Amendment Lawyer to Address its World Impact
On 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Reston, VA, USA, December 5, 2008 — Floyd Abrams, Esq., considered America’s most distinguished legal defender of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is to deliver the World Press Freedom Committee’s 20th Annual Andersen-Ottaway Lecture on Global Communications Issues, at the United Nations, on December 9, 2008 -- the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Article 19, widely viewed as “the world’s First Amendment.”

Abrams’ presentation is titled: “The U.S. First Amendment Tradition and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: After 60 Years, What Relationship?”

The late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called Abrams the “most significant First Amendment lawyer of our age” -- a generally held view, summed up by Abrams’ informal title, “Mr. First Amendment.”

Abrams has been involved in landmark press freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, starting in 1971 with the New York Times vs. the United States, the Pentagon Papers case.

He is to speak at a luncheon in the Delegates’ Lounge at UN Headquarters in New York presided by WPFC Chairman Richard Winfield, Esq., and organized in cooperation with the UNESCO Liaison Office at the UN.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The Andersen-Ottaway Lecture was created in honor of WPFC’s emeritus chairmen, Harold W. Andersen and James H. Ottaway Jr.

Earlier speakers have included UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize-winning East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, and a number of internationally significant journalistic figures from China, Britain, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Mexico and the United States and including Stefan Bratkowski, first leader of Poland’s Solidarity journalists union.

The World Press Freedom Committee is an umbrella organization, bringing together 45 journalistic groups on five continents, representing labor and management and print, broadcast and online press, united to defend and further press freedom.

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