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Former Trump campaign staffer files class action lawsuit to invalidate the Trump 2016 campaign’s nondisclosure agreements barring staffers and volunteers from ever criticizing Trump. After 12-year-old journalist Hilde Lysiak was threatened with arrest by an Arizona cop, Lysiak courageously posts a video of their next encounter on social media, prompting discipline of the cop. Journalism covering the issue of institutional racism falls on primarily African American journalists, as they reflect on the implications of the Virginia blackface scandal. President Trump stays silent about the elaborate terrorist plans by coast guard officer to kill U.S. journalists and political leaders. -Nora Benavidez, Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs

The most pressing threats and notable goings-on in free expression today

U.S.

A Former Trump Staffer Filed a Class Action to Invalidate All of the Campaign’s Nondisclosure Agreements
The claims brought by former campaign staffer Jessica Denson represent the broadest attack to date on the Trump campaign’s practice of having staffers, volunteers, and contractors sign agreements barring them from ever publicly criticizing Trump … and from disclosing private or confidential information.
BUZZFEED NEWS

An Arizona Cop Threatened to Arrest a 12-Year-Old Journalist. She Wasn’t Backing Down.
Hilde Lysiak wrote that she was riding her bike to investigate a tip when Joseph Patterson, whose position in the small town is equivalent to that of a police chief, stopped her and asked for identification. … Later, Lysiak ran into Patterson again. This time, she was filming.
WASHINGTON POST

Virginia Blackface Scandal: Journalists Share Their Experiences
“America’s newsrooms are not nearly diverse enough. Black journalists are underrepresented at the statehouse, at the White House, and, within newsrooms, at the decision-making table. So our impact in guiding these stories is limited.”
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW

Trump Stays Silent on Media-Hating Coast Guard Officer
More than 24 hours after news broke that a Coast Guard officer—an avowed white nationalist—was allegedly plotting to kill Democratic politicians and journalists, Trump has, at least so far, not said a word.”
POLITICO

 
Global

China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise
The Chinese authorities turned to a Massachusetts company and a prominent Yale researcher as they built an enormous system of surveillance and control.
NEW YORK TIMES

A Firebomb Exposes East Europe’s Struggle with Media Freedom
Milan Jovanovic is the latest journalist in Serbia to come under attack in what opponents of President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling party say is an increasingly hostile environment for media.
BLOOMBERG

Rights Group Accuses Mozambique of Arbitrary Journalist Arrests
Human Rights Watch accused the Mozambican government of arbitrarily detaining journalists covering the fight against a jihadist insurgency in the country’s north.
NEW VISION

Slovaks Protest Lack of Progress One Year since Journalist’s Murder
Thousands of Slovaks rallied to mark the first anniversary of the killing of an investigative reporter and his fiancee and to protest what they see as a lack of government action against the person he wrote about.
REUTERS

DARE is a project of PEN America’s #LouderTogether campaign, bringing you a daily-curated roundup of the most important free expression-related news from the U.S. and abroad. Send your feedback and story suggestions to [email protected]