This is the Catered Daily Podcast for Friday, May 14th, 2010.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Iranian dissident and journalist Akbar Ganji received the 2010 Milton Friedman Prize for advancing liberty last night at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

He was introduced by Cato Executive Vice President David Boz. These are some excerpts of that event.

On behalf of the Cato Institute and the International Selection Committee

for the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.

It is my honor to present the prize to its latest recipient, Akbar Ganji. In the video tonight, Milton Friedman said,

those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a reasonably free society

tend to underestimate the importance of freedom. We tend to take it for granted. We forget

that freedom is a rare and delicate plant. And that of course is why we created the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty

so that the world will not forget the importance of liberty and the importance of working to advance it.

It is no surprise that the Friedman Prize often goes to people who do not live in free societies and who therefore do not take freedom for granted.

In many cases they know freedom only by its absence. It is often from oppression that extraordinary individuals

emerge willing to risk their comfort, their careers, and even their lives to fight for liberty.

Over the centuries, freedom has had many heroes.

Cicero, Tertullian, Vittoria, John Lilburn, Sam Adams, Frederick Douglas, Elizabeth Katie Stanton,

Sophie Scholl, Vladimir Bukovsky, Lekva Wenza, Martin Luther King,

Ong San Suu Kyi, and another hero with us tonight,

the 2008 recipient of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, Jan Goy Coachea. There are many more I could name and more whose names will never be known.

Often, it is the powerful writing of philosophers, historians, essayists, and journalists

that challenges power and brings about a disaster. and truth about their society and encourage change.

We think of Thomas Payne and common sense.

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