For the next six weeks, starting today with an introduction, Editor Martin L. Cahn will be using his column to discuss the “Five Freedoms” enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Cahn, a member of the S.C. Press Association’s (SCPA) Freedom of Information Committee, was inspired by the SCPA’s most recent email bulletin in which the organization announced it has signed on to the “Think F1rst”   campaign created by the the Media of Nebraska, a collaboration of the Nebraska Press and Broadcast associations.

The Nebraska media did so because a 2018 survey conducted by the Annenberg Policy Center revealed that four in 10 students couldn’t name even one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

They are, in case you weren’t sure (in the order in which they appear), the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, and the freedom to petition the government.

The campaign is scheduled to continue through the end of the year. In addition to Cahn’s columns, the C-I -- as space allows -- will be running public service advertisements provided to the SCPA by the Media of Nebraska. We hope what they convey and what Cahn writes during these six weeks will serve as a reminder of not only what the Five Freedoms are, but why they are important.

Share them, discuss them, fight for them.

There is a reason they are enshrined in the Constitution’s very First Amendment.