NEW YORK, May 11, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- The Playboy Foundation today recognized winners of the 2006 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards during a luncheon presentation at New York's Cipriani 23rd Street. Eight individuals were honored for their personal achievements in defending the First Amendment, and each received a $5000 honorarium and a specially designed crystal plaque commemorating his or her individual achievements. Margaret Carlson, Washington editor of The Week magazine and columnist for Bloomberg News, served as master of ceremonies.

Established in 1979 by Playboy Enterprises, Inc.'s (NYSE: PLA) now- Chairman and CEO Christie Hefner, the awards program honors individuals who have made significant contributions to protect and enhance First Amendment rights of Americans.

Since its inception, more than 100 individuals including high school students, lawyers, journalists and educators have been honored with a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. The awards are given in areas including print and broadcast journalism, education, book publishing, arts and entertainment, government and law.

"I am delighted to add eight more names to the impressive roster of Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award winners," said Hefner. "A principal guarantee of freedom is the First Amendment. Now, more than ever, it is important that we honor the men and women who are on the front lines protecting that freedom."

The 2006 winners are:

• Paisley Dodds (Print Journalism): An Associated Press reporter who reported on the activities at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and under the Freedom of Information Act, sued for the release of thousands of pages of tribunal transcripts, which revealed numerous complaints about prisoner abuse.
  
  
• Patricia Princehouse, Ph.D. (Education): The leader of Ohio Citizens for Science who, seeing a profound and rising challenge to the separation of church and state in American schools, organized a successful coalition to preserve science education in Ohio's public schools.
  
  
• Geoffrey R. Stone (Book Publishing): A law professor at the University of Chicago Law School who wrote Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism. The book sounds a clarion call for robust protection of First Amendment freedoms, especially in times of national crisis.
  
  
• Jack Spadaro (Government): The director of the National Mine Safety and Health Academy who put his life on the line when he blew the whistle on irresponsible mining practices, corporate collusion, and government cover-up in the wake of an environmental mining disaster.
  
  
• Shelby Knox (Arts and Entertainment): A student and subject of the film The Education of Shelby Knox who challenged abstinence-only sex education and alarmist misinformation in her Lubbock, Texas high school and fought for medically accurate sexuality education and lesbian and gay rights.
  
  
• Marion Lipschutz & Rose Rosenblatt (Arts and Entertainment): The producers/directors of The Education of Shelby Knox who exposed the consequences of abridging students' right to learn through abstinence- only education that prohibits teachers from giving comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education.
  
  
• Rhett Jackson (Lifetime Achievement): The former president of the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and owner of The Happy Bookseller who has committed his life to the First Amendment and social justice with indefatigable dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the proposition that the printed word should be available to all.

Winners were selected by an independent panel of judges, including Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation; Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); and Eugenie Scott, Ph.D., executive director of the National Center for Science Education and 1999 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award winner.

Past winners have included Nicholas Becker, for challenging the constitutionality of a student-led prayer during his high school graduation ceremony; Bill Maher, as host of Politically Incorrect, for speaking out at a time when Americans were encouraged to abandon the Bill of Rights in exchange for the false comfort of "national security"; Mary Dana and Nancy Zennie, co- founders of "Muggles for Harry Potter," a group of students, parents and teachers who successfully rallied to oppose a Michigan school superintendent's decision to ban the Harry Potter books from Zeeland Public Schools' curricula; Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, former supervisory agent and forensic chemist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who blew the whistle on fraud and scientific misconduct in the FBI crime lab; Trina Magi and Linda Ramsdell, for organizing a grassroots campaign to eliminate Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which undermines Americans' right to read and access information without governmental intrusion or interference; and Kelli Peterson, who formed the Gay-Straight Alliance, defended its right to convene on the campus of Salt Lake City's East High School, and inspired similar programs in 25 states.

The Playboy Foundation supports local and national nonprofit organizations that protect the rights of the individual in a free society. Since its inception in 1965, the Foundation has awarded nearly $20 million in grants and in-kind contributions to organizations concerned with First Amendment freedoms, civil liberties and social justice.

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Playboy Foundation

Theresa Hennessey for Playboy Foundation, +1-312-373-2444, theresah@playboy.com