Gene Policinski

Gene Policinski was executive producer of the nationally syndicated public television program "Speaking Freely," host and producer of several news and sports talk programs on "USA Today Sky Radio;" and host of "Newseum Radio," which aired on NPR worldwide. He is editor and publisher of the occasional local blog, Ciceronia, on news and items of interest in Cicero, Ind. Policinski is Senior Fellow for the First Amendment for the Freedom Forum, Board Secretary for the First Amendment Museum, and is one of the founding editors of USA TODAY. Since 1999, he has overseen the "Justice and Journalism program" conducted in cooperation with the Judicial Branch committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, representing federal judges nationwide. A national expert on the First Amendment, he lectures and is interviewed regularly on news media, journalism, and First Amendment issues. He is coauthor with Professor Emeritus Robert Bickel of Stetson University College of Law of a multi-media academic course, "The First Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement;" and author of an online publication on the history and development of First Amendment law and principles, "From the Village Green to the Village Screen," to be published in 2022. Policinski also is a contributing author to "Whistleblowers, Leaks and the First Amendment," published by the American Bar Association, providing the chapter on First Amendment issues and a free press. He also has been published in a number of law review journals on topics ranging from news coverage of the federal courts to the First Amendment legal legacy of championship boxer Muhammed Ali. In 1996, he joined the nonprofit educational foundation Freedom Forum, where in 2020 he retired as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. A longtime proponent of diversity as an essential element of a free press, he is a member of the board of directors of Journal-isms, a regular report on diversity in the news media. The host of multiple radio and online audio programs during his career, he also was producer and then narrator from 1999 to 2014 of the multimedia musical touring production sponsored by the Freedom Forum, Freedom Sings, featuring Grammy Award winning musicians performing music that was censored or that served as social anthems. At the Freedom Forum, he served as executive assistant to the president, and later as vice president and executive director of the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, at Vanderbilt University. He also served as president of the foundation's Diversity Institute. An early advocate and practitioner of multi-media journalism, he is a former national trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; and continues to serve on the Mid-South chapter of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is a member of multiple journalism associations, including the News Leaders Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He holds a Certified Journalism Educator designation from the Journalism Education Association. He served on the board of advisers for the Institute for Media, Culture, and Ethics at Bellarmine University, Louisville, Ky., and is a member of the board of advisers for the Department of Media and Journalism at the University of South Dakota. A graduate of Ball State University, he is a member of the Dean's Council for its College of Communications, Information and Media; and in 1996 was the university's Alumni of the Year. He attended the Nashville School of Law. He was awarded membership in 2012 to Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, through its chapter at the University of North Georgia. A 1980 recipient of the Indiana governors' service award, Sagamore of the Wabash, he also is president of the board of the Nickel Plate Heritage Railroad, in Indiana. He also has served as an adjunct faculty member at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C., and on the education committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee. He was a trustee of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, a member of the board of trustees of the Association of Opinion Journalists Foundation and was co-chair of the 2012 national convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He also serves on the board of directors of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection, which supports curation in Indiana of a $20 million collection of papers and memorabilia from the life of President Abraham Lincoln, as well supporting as the Roland Center for Lincoln Research in Fort Wayne, Ind.