[bestbits] EFF Announces 2014 Pioneer Award Winners

Wed Aug 20 18:59:01 EDT 2014

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Contact:

Dave Maass
  Media Relations Coordinator
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  press at eff.org
  +1 415 436-9333 x177

U.N. Free Expression Champion, Congressional Internet
Defender, and Groundbreaking Counter-surveillance Artist Win
EFF Pioneer Awards

EFF to Honor Former U.N. Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue,
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and artist Trevor Paglen at San
Francisco Ceremony Featuring the Yes Men

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is
pleased to announce the distinguished winners of the 2014
Pioneer Awards: United Nations Special Rapporteur Frank La
Rue, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and groundbreaking
counter-surveillance artist Trevor Paglen.

The award ceremony will be held the evening of October 2 at
the Lodge at the Regency Center in San Francisco.  Keynote
speakers will be Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, better
known as the Yes Men, who are known for their elaborate
parodies and impersonations to fight government and
corporate malfeasance.

Frank La Rue is the former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the
Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion
and Expression.  From his appointment in 2008 to the end of
his term in 2014, La Rue brought technology to the
forefront of the fight for free expression around the
world, declaring that access to the Internet is a
fundamental human right and highlighting the importance of
uncensored communication and anonymous speech in
increasingly filtered and tracked networks.  La Rue also
fought the global "book famine" for people with visual and
reading disabilities, advocating for an international
Treaty of the Blind to reform over-restrictive copyright
that hindered the production and distribution of books in
accessible formats.  Last year, La Rue published a highly
influential report on the dangers of widespread state
surveillance, arguing that privacy is an essential
requirement for true freedom of expression.  Before taking
his post at the U.N., La Rue spent years working on human
rights issues, including bringing genocide cases against
the military dictatorship in his native Guatemala in 2000
and 2001.

For nearly 20 years, Rep. Zoe Lofgren has been a crucial
voice in Congress on technology, innovation, and free
speech--defending the free and open Internet, fighting for
privacy and free speech, and blocking dangerous copyright
laws while pushing for sensible alternatives. Lofgren
rallied congressional opposition to the Stop Online Piracy
Act (SOPA), one of the defining moments of Internet
activism.  Currently, Lofgren is fighting to reform some of
the worst legal threats to our digital rights: the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which regulates our
email privacy with outdated standards; the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, which has been used to block
phone unlocking, jailbreaking, and our freedom to tinker;
and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the law used to
unfairly prosecute Aaron Swartz. Lofgren chairs the
California Democratic Congressional Delegation, the largest
delegation in Congress.

Trevor Paglen is an artist whose work uses methods from
science, journalism, and other disciplines in an attempt to
"see" the historical moment we live in.  Paglen's
groundbreaking projects exposing government secrecy have
included documenting U.S. government drone flights, using
high-end optical systems to photograph top-secret
governmental sites, and tracking classified spacecraft in
Earth's orbit.  In a recent project, Paglen photographed
the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance
Office, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency,
releasing the images without restriction for public use.
Paglen's visual art has been exhibited at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among many other
places. Paglen is also the author of five books, including
Torture Taxi, an early look at the CIA's extraordinary
rendition program.

"Each of our Pioneer Award winners has helped the world
understand how technology and civil liberties are
interwoven into our lives, and each is still working to
protect our freedom and fight abuses," EFF Executive
Director Shari Steele said.  "We are so proud to be able to
present them with this year's Pioneer Awards."

Tickets to the Pioneer Awards, which includes access to the
general reception and ceremony, are $65 for EFF members and
$75 for non-members.  Also available are tickets for a
special, advance reception featuring some past and present
Pioneer Award winners as well as keynoters, the Yes Men.
The special advance reception tickets are $250, which
includes entry for the ticket holder plus a guest.

Awarded every year since 1992, EFF's Pioneer Awards
recognize the leaders who are extending freedom and
innovation on the electronic frontier.  Previous honorees
include Aaron Swartz, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras,
Tim Berners-Lee, and the Tor Project, among many others.

To buy tickets to the Pioneer
Awards:
https://supporters.eff.org/civicrm/event/register?id=87

For this release:
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/un-free-expression-champion-congressional-internet-defender-and-groundbreaking

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading
organization protecting civil liberties in the digital
world. Founded in 1990, we defend free speech online, fight
illegal surveillance, promote the rights of digital
innovators, and work to ensure that the rights and freedoms
we enjoy are enhanced, rather than eroded, as our use of
technology grows. EFF is a member-supported organization.
Find out more at https://www.eff.org.

    -end-

-- 
Katitza Rodriguez
International Rights Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation

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