Eight Individuals Honored for Personal Achievements in Defending Basic
                                   Rights

    NEW YORK, May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 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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