Tim Cook to Receive Newseum's 2017 Free Expression Award

Apple CEO Tim Cook was today named the recipient of the Newseum 2017 Free Expression Award in the Free Speech category.

According to the announcement, Cook is being recognized for both creating technology with a "profound impact" on communication and for using his position to "take a public stand" on issues like racial equality, privacy, the environment, LGBT rights, and more.

tim cook hands raised
The Newseum, based in Washington, D.C., aims to explain and defend free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment through a range of interactive museum exhibits.

Cook will be accepting the award at an event set to be held at the Newseum on April 18, 2017.

Alongside Cook, U.S. Representative John Lewis, Executive Director of Becket Law Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz, ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, and Hatch Beauty Chairman Christie Hefner will all receive awards this year.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
m4 macbook air pink

Apple Now Selling Refurbished M4 MacBook Air Models

Friday June 13, 2025 3:34 pm PDT by
Apple today added M4 MacBook Air models to its refurbished store in the United States, making the latest MacBook Air devices available at a discounted price for the first time since they launched earlier this year. Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are available, with Apple offering multiple capacities and configurations. The refurbished devices are discounted by approximately 15...

Top Rated Comments

centauratlas Avatar
109 months ago
"Free expression" as long as you agree with Tim?

Kind of like the "freedom of speech protesters" in Berkeley last night who shut down a speech they didn't like. The irony is rich.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
109 months ago
Jony Ive must be busy these days, building Cook's trophy cabinets.

Meanwhile, the Mac Pro is...
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apolloa Avatar
109 months ago
Good God, if the mans head and ego gets any bigger he'll begin to believe he's the second coming.. oh wait....

I would NEVER give him this award. The way he has 'expressed' himself is through the Apple brand name. Has he done expression through any other way?

As for the environment! Seriously! All he's done is hire someone else to do that work and carry on from what Steve did, and that's only done so they can reduce fees and taxes due to carbon emissions and reduce energy bills, don't get me wrong it's good work, but it's hardly in the name of the planet first.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apolloa Avatar
109 months ago
Can the MacRumors admins (arn, juli, etc) please consider revisting the threshold required for or altogether turning off user comments for the PR&SI posts?

As was evidenced by the comment section degenerating into a toxic cesspit in the earlier "Open letter to Trump" thread ('https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/02/apple-open-letter-to-trump/'), limiting comments to users with 100 posts or more does not hinder those trying to incite and flame other forum members with differing ideologies.
Well you could do that, but then you are attempting to deliberately sensor freedom of speech. You know that little thing millions have died over the years fighting for!
What makes your opinion or anyone with over 100 posts MORE valid then anyone else huh?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ibookg409 Avatar
109 months ago
Jony Ive must be busy these days, building Cook's trophy cabinets.

Meanwhile, the Mac Pro is...
They are the thinnest trophy cabinets Apple has ever made.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WinstonRumfoord Avatar
109 months ago
That is OK.

We always have people like you to defend white supremacist's right to spew racist vitriol.

Well done for Tim C. Good use of the platform you command.
Defending someones right to hold contemptuous positions is noble. Trying to bar someone from holding a contemptuous position is not.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)