The Fred Friendly First Amendment Award

The Fred Friendly First Amendment award is presented annually to a journalist who has shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the rights set forth in the First Amendment.

The award, given out by the School of Communications, bears the name of the former CBS News president and champion of freedom of speech. Past recipients include Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Bill Moyers, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, Robert MacNeil, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Christiane Amanpour, Tom Bettag, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft, Charles Gibson, Morley Safer, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning, Martha Raddatz and Scott Pelley.

Diane Sawyer, anchor of ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer," was among more than 100 guests at the 2012 award ceremony, held in New York City.

Other guests included former "World News" anchor Charles Gibson; George Stephanopoulos, co-anchor of "Good Morning America"; Barbara Walters, creator and co-host of ABC's "The View"; and ABC correspondents and anchors Ron Claiborne, David Kerley and Terry Moran. Network executives included executive producers Jon Banner, Marc Burstein, Tom Cibrowski, Michael Corn, James Goldston, David Reiter, vice president of news, and Robin Sproul, vice president and Washington bureau chief.