Egypt Suspends 8 Female TV Anchors, Saying They Are Overweight
Most Egyptian journalists have had to watch their tongues and tone down their reporting over the past three years to keep their jobs under a military-dominated government. Now, the state is ordering some women working as television anchors to practice a similar restraint with their weight.
NEW YORK TIMES

Judge opens investigation into death of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca
García Lorca’s fate remains a mystery after the site where he was believed to have been buried was excavated in 2009 without finding human remains.
THE GUARDIAN

Tajikistan: Free Independent Journalist
Amindzhon Gulmurodzoda, editor of the news site faraj.tj.com, was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Tajikistan’s security services alleged that Gulmurodzoda had submitted a falsified birth certificate in order to apply for a passport when he was a child, a thin smokescreen for a blatant assault on free speech.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Turkey releasing thousands jailed for pre-coup crimes to make room for new inmates
The parole decision came as Turkey presses on with the biggest purge in its modern history after the July 15 bid by rogue elements in the military to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Social media speech police need clear rules
Conservative media have accused Twitter of censorship and systematic left-wing bias, while Buzzfeed charges that the platform allows rampant “abuse and hate speech” while safeguarding a few high-profile users.
USA TODAY

NSA hacking tools were leaked online. Here’s what you need to know.
The Shadow Brokers put the files online in a few different ways. That’s bad news for user security: For one, these tools are now available to criminal hackers.
WASHINGTON POST

The Internet’s Safe Harbor Just Got a Little Less Safe
The Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects companies from liability for copyright violations committed by their users. But after a recent court decision, that safe harbor doesn’t look so safe anymore.
WIRED

 

PEN’s Free Expression Digest brings you a daily curated round-up of the most important free expression-related stories from around the web. Please send your feedback and suggestions to [email protected]