By a 59-38 percent margin, Americans don’t agree with President Trump’s contention that news media are “the enemy of the American people,” according to a new poll. The State Department finally starts having press availability again, but MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell gets hustled out as she persists to ask questions. Hawaii becomes the first state to file a lawsuit against the president’s revised travel ban, saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.
-Dru Menaker, Chief Operating Officer

DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression

PEN America’s take on today’s most pressing threats to free expression

U.S.

Trump inches up but still has negative approval rating, Quinnipiac University national poll finds
President Donald Trump gets a negative 41-52 percent job approval rating from American voters. Voters also disagree 58–39 percent with Trump’s claim that certain news organizations are “the enemy of the American people.”.
POLITICO

Women’s strike organizers arrested in New York on a day of protests worldwide
Police in New York arrested three leaders of the Women’s March movement for blocking traffic outside the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday as they took part in the global “Day Without Women” strike, called to mark International Women’s Day.
THE INTERCEPT

FCC chairman dodges question on if press is ‘enemy’ of Americans
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday dodged questions about whether he agrees with President Trump’s views of the media. During an oversight hearing, Sen. Tom Udall asked Pai if he shares Trump’s belief that the press is an “enemy of the American people.”
THE HILL

C.I.A. scrambles to contain damage From WikiLeaks documents
The C.I.A. scrambled on Wednesday to assess and contain the damage from the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents that cataloged the agency’s cyberspying capabilities, temporarily halting work on some projects while the F.B.I. turned to finding who was responsible for the leak.
NEW YORK TIMES

Trump allies look to turn tables on Dems, media
Trump’s conservative allies are trying to turn the tables on Democrats and the media over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, now arguing the investigation that began during the Obama administration is the real scandal.
THE HILL

 
Global

Prosecution of Lena Hendry violates right to free expression
A Kuala Lumpur court found activist Lendry guilty of organising a private screening of the award-winning human rights documentary, No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, without censorship board approval nearly four years ago. She will be sentenced on 22 March, and faces fines and up to three years in prison.
ALIRAN

Journalist threatened, attacked at Cavusoglu Hamburg rally
Sebastian Kempkens has reported that he was attacked during Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu’s rally in Hamburg. He reported that the confrontation began after he “departed from his role as a journalist and became an activist for press freedom”, holding up a sign in support of detained journalist Deniz Yucel.
DEUTSCHE WELLE

Myanmar journalist faces defamation case After slamming nationalist monk
A prominent Myanmar journalist is facing a defamation case, police said Wednesday, after he took to Facebook last week to criticize a nationalist Buddhist monk who praised the January assassination of one of the nation’s leading Muslim attorneys.
RADIO FREE ASIA

Chinese media confuse Trump satire with news
An explosive headline about President Donald Trump rippled through Chinese media this week. But sources failed to recognize it was written by New Yorker satirist and comedian Andy Borowitz, interpreting it instead as hard fact.
CNN

Trump’s media-bashing is making it easier for foreign regimes to gag the press
Now that an American president is routinely launching anti-media tirades, Beijing is taking advantage. Cribbing from President Trump, the People’s Daily, run by the Communist Party, tweeted last week that recent stories in foreign media accusing police of torturing a detained lawyer were “fake news.”
WASHINGTON POST

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