TIME is running out for budding young writers to get in their entries for the Evening Press competition to win cash and work experience.
We've formed a partnership with York's Gild of Freemen to launch an essay competition based on freedom of expression.
The competition is being organised to mark the gild's 50th anniversary next year and to emphasise the importance of freedom of expression today as much as when the city's trade and craft guilds were formed in medieval times.
We are giving young people aged 15 to 18 a free hand to write a 500-word essay on ANY aspect of freedom of expression.
It could be about people who have died or have been imprisoned for their beliefs, such as Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela; whether young people have a real voice in society; whether newspapers, broadcasters or authors have true freedom of expression (and do they use it wisely?); or whether we have freedom of expression in the clothing we are expected to wear.
The author of the best essay will win a £200 prize, along with two weeks' work experience in the Evening Press newsroom.
He or she will also win three tickets to the gild's Christmas lunch at Bedern Hall in December at which the award will be presented.
The entry must be the student's own, original work and be no more than 500 words.
Entries should preferably be typed and must be submitted to the Evening Press by October 31.
We cannot return entries. Entrants must live within the Evening Press circulation area and the work experience placement must be taken within 12 months of it being awarded. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges who will include officials of the Gild and Evening Press editor Liz Page.
Judges will meet soon after the closing date and the winner will be announced in early December.
Submit your essay to Rosemary Cook, Free Hand competition, Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN by October 31, or email it to rosemary.cook@ycp.co.uk
Enclose your full name, postal address, daytime telephone number and age.
Updated: 09:54 Wednesday, October 23, 2002
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