As the Republicans in the House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards offers a prescription on being heard at the PEN World Voices Festival. Fox News is hit with a gender discrimination lawsuit. Trump aide and former Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka calls reports he will be leaving the White House “very fake news.” -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.

Fox News hit with another gender discrimination lawsuit
A Fox News radio correspondent has sued the network, saying she was fired last month in retaliation for contacting the law firm investigating sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaints at the company.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Gorka on reports he’s leaving White House: We’re in ‘age of very fake news’
Trump aide Sebastian Gorka plans to stay in the White House as long President Donald Trump wants him there, the national security aide said Thursday. Reports last week indicated that Gorka was on his way out of the White House, perhaps to a new role inside a federal agency.
POLITICO

Trump signs executive order to ‘vigorously promote religious liberty’
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday meant to allow churches and other religious organizations to become more active politically, though the actual implications of the document appeared limited.
CNN

On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye
China’s booming economy has increasingly allowed more of its young men and women to seek a college education in the West. But those students often bring to campus something else from home: the watchful eyes and occasionally heavy hand of the Chinese government.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

In LA’s Boyle Heights, Latino Teens Draw National Praise for Community Journalism
In a neighborhood that is almost entirely Latino, a bilingual community newspaper run by high school students has drawn national attention for its coverage of local issues such as gentrification, affordable housing, immigration, and police brutality.
NBC

 
Global

Death Toll Rises to 36 as Students Continue Protests in Venezuela
Students held demonstrations across Caracas Thursday as a two-month-old protest movement that shows no signs of letting up claimed more lives. At the Central University of Venezuela, soldiers bathed hundreds of student protesters in tear gas, but many protestors still stayed put.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

‘EU discouragement’ has hurt free expression in Turkey
The European Union’s faded support of Turkey’s ascension into the EU has contributed to the declining state of freedom of speech and the media in Turkey says Turkish columnist Sedat Ergin.
DEUTSCHE WELLE

‘Neutral Sex’ Designation Is Struck Down in France
France’s top court ruled on Thursday against granting an intersex person born with a genital malformation the right to be recognized by the state as being of a “neutral” sex. The plaintiff, who is married and has adopted a child, brought the case to the Cour de Cassation, France’s supreme court, this year.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cartoonists ‘first victims’ of crackdowns on press
Ten countries including Russia, Turkey, and India have been condemned for censoring, locking up or threatening cartoonists in a new report published Friday. The Cartooning for Peace group said cartoonists were increasingly becoming the victims of repressive crackdowns on free speech.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Why We Need Quality Citizen Journalism More Than Ever
While some will argue that untrained citizens are more at liberty to obscure information and spread opinion rather than truth; others will retaliate, stating that politically aligned press already tilt the scales to support their own agenda anyway.
HUFFINGTON POST

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