The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression announced Wednesday the recipients of its 21st annual Muzzle Awards, which recognize various private organizations, government officials and public agencies who the Center believes hinder freedom of speech.
The awards are given to "those who in the previous year committed particularly egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression," according to a Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression press release.
The center, located in Charlottesville, defends "free expression in all its forms" by participating in the judicial and legislative processes, fostering education about First Amendment rights and promoting freedom of the arts, according to its website.
The center named nine recipients, two from Virginia. The Norfolk Police Department received a Muzzle for apprehending a man filming a police officer without permission, and the Virginia Department of Corrections received its third Muzzle Award for not allowing an inmate to listen to a Dylan Thomas CD because the department had not previously approved it.
Joshua Wheeler, director of the Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said the winners were chosen from about 200 to 300 nominations submitted on the center's website, and the organization's Board of Trustees made the final decisions for the nine recipients.
"Unfortunately for every [awardee] we select, there are five or six we could substitute," Wheeler said.
Wheeler said the Muzzles are not limited to certain elected offices or agencies, because there are "acts of censorship at every level of government."
"The main purpose [of the awarding Muzzles] is to remind people that we need to be vigilant in protecting First Amendment rights," he said. "Hopefully the Muzzles will remind people that threats to free speech are ongoing."
The center announces the awards annually near Thomas Jefferson's April 13 birthday.
-compiled by Lizzy Turner
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