Freedom Forum

The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) foundation dedicated to fostering First Amendment freedoms for all.^[1] The organization advances First Amendment freedoms through programs that include Today's Front Pages, the Power Shift Project, the annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference for high school juniors, annual First Amendment Festival, Free Expression Awards and other conferences.^[2][3] Freedom Forum operated the Newseum in Washington, D.C. until 2019, when it sold the building to Johns Hopkins University.

The Freedom Forum was founded in 1991 when the Gannett Foundation, started by publisher Frank E. Gannett as a charitable foundation to aid communities where his company had newspapers, sold its name and assets back to Gannett Company for $670 million. Retired Gannett chairman and USA Today newspaper founder Al Neuharth used the proceeds to found the Freedom Forum. Its original mission was to foster "free press, free speech and free spirit."^[2]  

Neuharth's daughter, Jan A. Neuharth, is chief executive officer and chair of the Freedom Forum.^[4]

Today, the organization trains, teaches, and surveys students, educators, journalists and journalism educators, and community leaders to promote free expression, First Amendment awareness and storytelling, and inclusive newsroom culture.^[3][5][2][1] The Freedom Forum's vision is "an America where everyone knows, values and defends the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition."^[1] The Freedom Forum's affiliate organizations include the Al Neuharth Media Center at the University of South Dakota; the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi; and the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University.^[3]