New CIA head revises his view on Wikileaks, now casting it as “a nonstate, hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia’’ and saying it can’t use “free speech” as a defense. A professor’s questionable anti-Trump tweet to his 28 followers gets noticed by a right-wing website, leading to national attention, a flood of threats, deletion of his account, public apology, and Secret Service investigation. And the stage is set for a First Amendment test in Alabama: can a religious institution hire its own police force? -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’s CIA Chief Slams WikiLeaks as ‘Hostile Intelligence Service’
Mike Pompeo, the former Kansas lawmaker tapped by President Donald Trump to run the CIA, excoriated WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange in his first public remarks since taking over the spy agency.
FOREIGN POLICY

Fresno State professor faces backlash after ‘Trump must hang’ tweet
A history professor at Fresno State has come under scrutiny after writing on Twitter that President Trump “must hang” to save American democracy. The professor’s Twitter account has since been deleted and he issued an apology Wednesday.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Can Churches Hire Police? Alabama Legislators Reckon With the First Amendment
A bill passed in Alabama on Tuesday by the State Senate would grant Briarwood Presbyterian Church the right to “appoint and employ one or more persons to act as police officers to protect the safety and integrity of the church and its ministries.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES

New York police arrest 25 at immigration protest in Trump Tower
New York police on Thursday arrested 25 people in the lobby of Trump Tower protesting U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies. As heavily armed police wearing ballistic vests stood guard blocking the entrances, other officers carried the protesters to police vans.
REUTERS

Don’t Shout Down Repugnant Speakers, Ask Them Tough Questions
Speakers defending bigotry will, when exposed to careful and exacting questioning, collapse from their own weight. But disruptive protest will hand the speakers the only victory they could obtain.
NEWSWEEK

 
Global

Erdogan rules out releasing German-Turkish journalist Yucel ‘as long as I am in power’
The Turkish president has cited Germany’s refusal to free imprisoned Turkish citizens as a reason behind the refusal. His statement came days before Turkey votes in a referendum that could expand his presidential powers.
DEUTSCHE WELLE

Jailed Uganda Critic Resists Forced Psychiatric Exam
A Ugandan academic detained for calling the country’s president “a pair of buttocks” resisted attempts to forcibly carry out psychiatric tests on her, her attorney said Thursday, describing the alleged incident as an attack on her dignity.
VOICE OF AMERICA

African governments could be denied IP addresses as punishment for shutting the internet
African governments that shut down the internet could face strict measures if a new proposal to the regional internet registry is adopted. The policy suggestion states that after the end of any shutdown, governments and any of their related bodies should not be allocated an IP address for one year.
QUARTZ

Chechens tell of prison beatings and electric shocks in anti-gay purge
For years, Chechen authorities have blackmailed the republic’s tiny, beleaguered gay community. Now, up to several hundred gay men are feared to have been rounded up and some killed in ultra-conservative Russian republic.
THE GUARDIAN

Journalism in the era of clickbait
The click business model, looking for stupid or irrelevant stories that will get a large amount of clicks to increase income, is poisoning media. Experts say upholding journalistic integrity is the only way to combat the pay-per-click business model.
AL JAZEERA

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