More than 44 Democratic lawmakers join boycott of inauguration to protest the President-elect’s insults toward civil rights leader John Lewis. PEN America amasses 2500 for flagship #WritersResist protest, and drops off petition with 175,000 signatures at Trump Tower. Trump in war of words with outgoing CIA Director over characterization of federal agents as “Nazis.”
-Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director

 

DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression

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

U.S.

‘Our Democracy Is at Risk’: ‘Writers Resist’ with Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Readings
Using the rallying cry, “Writers Resist,” hundreds of writers in more than 90 cities in the United States and around the world participated in literary protests timed to Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on Jan. 15, reading stories, poems, and speeches, about the ideals of democracy and free expression.
NBC NEWS

Defiant WH Press Corps “won’t go away” if ejected
“If they do so, we’ll still cover him. The White House press corps won’t go away,” CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett told CBSN’s Josh Elliott Monday. “You can shove us a block away, two blocks away, a mile away. We will be on top of this White House — as we’ve been on top of every White House.”
CBS NEWS

Trump’s Plan To Neuter The WH Press Corps And Neuter Our Democracy
According to three senior officials, the Trump administration is considering evicting the press corps from the press room inside the White House and moving them to a conference center or to the Old Executive Office Building.
HUFFINGTON POST

‘Kompromat’ and the Danger of Doubt and Confusion in a Democracy
Since the emergence of an unverified dossier with salacious claims about President-elect Donald J. Trump, Americans have debated the ramifications of the arrival of “kompromat” as a feature of American politics.
NEW YORK TIMES

 
Global

Gambia expels foreign journalists with days to president’s investiture
Reports from Gambia indicate that a number of journalists have been expelled with two days to the expiration of the mandate of incumbent Yahya Jammeh.
AFRICA NEWS

Israel Detains Palestinian Journalist Freed Last Year After Hunger Strike
Mohammed al-Qiq, released in May 2016 after long detention without trial, launches new hunger strike after arrest for what Shin Bet calls ‘involvement in incitement to terror in Israel.’
HAARETZ

China orders app stores to register in bid to crack down on ‘illegal information’
App stores operating in mainland China must register with the government’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) this week in what the government claims is an attempt to clamp down on the spread of ‘illegal information’.
THE INQUIRER

Turkish journalist’s murder was deliberately permitted, says former police intelligence branch head
Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former head of Turkey’s police intelligence branch, has given his testimony in the 31st hearing into the 2007 killing of Armenian-origin Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, saying the killing was “deliberately not prevented” and security authorities in Istanbul and Trabzon were responsible.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

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