The executive producer and co-host of the PBS program "Speaking Freely" will address a luncheon at SUNY Fredonia on Wednesday, April 13. Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, will speak on "The Freedom to Act," which will focus on the freedoms and rights provided by the First Amendment and the status of those freedoms and rights in today’s society.
 
The luncheon will be held at 12:15 p.m. in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room at SUNY Fredonia. The event is open to the public.
 
"Speaking Freely" is a weekly television program on free expression and the arts presented by the First Amendment Center, a program of the Freedom Forum. The center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education and serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, the right to assemble and petition the government. Policinski joined the Freedom Forum in 1996 following a 27-year career in journalism.
 
The luncheon, part of SUNY Fredonia’s 2004-2005 convocation series, "A Call to Civic Action," is sponsored by the Department of Communication; the Interdisciplinary Program in Journalism; The Leader; WNYF TV; Fredonia Radio Systems, WCVF 88.9 FM and WDVL 89.5 campus channel 5; and the Convocation Committee.
 
Tickets for the luncheon are $7 and are available through SUNY Fredonia’s Central Ticket Office until April 6; call the ticket office at 716-673-3501 for more information.