Vanderbilt University and the Freedom Forum will make a major announcement at 1:30 p.m. Friday, July 26 to mark the 75th birthday Saturday of First Amendment Center founder and The Tennessean chairman emeritus John Seigenthaler.
The announcement will be made by Vanderbilt Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Nicholas S. Zeppos and Freedom Forum Chairman and CEO Charles Overby in a brief ceremony at the offices of the Freedom Forum and of the First Amendment Center, 1207 18th Ave. S., in Nashville.
Seigenthaler, Overby and Zeppos will be available for interviews following the announcement.
Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment values. He served for 43 years as an award-winning journalist for The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning newspaper, and at his retirement was editor, publisher and CEO. In 1982, Seigenthaler became founding editorial director of USA TODAY and served in that position for a decade, retiring from both the Nashville and national newspapers in 1991. The First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University and in Arlington, Va., is an independent affiliate of the Freedom Forum.
COVERING MEDIA: The announcement will be made in the Forum meeting room at the Freedom Forum/First Amendment Center. A mult-box is available. Camera and audio setup should be completed by five minutes prior to the announcement.
Parking for news media will be available beginning at 1 p.m. on the upper floor of the parking garage across the street from the Freedom Forum offices, on 18th Avenue South one-half block south of Edgehill Avenue. The upper floor is marked as “Vanderbilt University parking lot #76. The upper-floor parking area is reached through the adjacent, ground-level Vanderbilt parking area #77. Please place media identification on the dashboard if the vehicle does not display a logo.