A former top official for climate policy files a whistleblower complaint, saying he was reassigned after sounding the alarm about climate change’s threats to Native communities in Alaska. Congress considers a bill that would punish support for the BDS movement. Requests for state voter data from President Trump’s election commission are prompting some to cancel their voter registrations, leading to fears of voter suppression. A reporter rebels against White House restrictions on filming or broadcasting press briefings. Facebook is developing a new tool to help boost subscriptions to news organizations. Chinese police deny reporters access to Liu Xia, who continues to be held under house arrest despite never having been accused of a crime. -Katy Glenn Bass, Director of Free Expression Policy and Research

 

DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression

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

U.S.

I’m a scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration.
I am not a member of the deep state. I am not big government. I am a scientist, a policy expert, a civil servant and a worried citizen. Reluctantly, as of today, I am also a whistleblower on an administration that chooses silence over science.
WASHINGTON POST

U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel
A group of 43 senators—29 Republicans and 14 Democrats—wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel. Anyone guilty of violating the prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.
THE INTERCEPT

Activists urge voters to stay registered after Trump commission’s data request
Activists are urging people to stay registered to vote after President Trump’s new election integrity commission’s request for voter data spooked some Americans and caused them to cancel their registrations. The commission came under criticism from state officials when it asked for data as personal as the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers.
POLITICO

A reporter broke White House rules by streaming live audio of an off-camera briefing
At every White House news briefing since June 29—and many before, too—President Trump’s spokesmen have ordered a room full of smartphone-toting journalists not to film the session or even broadcast live audio. On Wednesday, one reporter defied the White House by streaming live sound of the briefing online.
WASHINGTON POST

Facebook, Seeking to Satisfy Publishers, May Let Them Charge for Articles
The tool would be added to Facebook’s Instant Articles product, which allows publishers to post news articles that can be read within Facebook rather than on the publisher’s website. Facebook plans to start a pilot with a small group of publishers in October and to expand the initiative in 2018 if early results are promising.
NEW YORK TIMES

 
Global

Get out! Chinese agents bar access to the ‘free’ wife of Liu Xiaobo *PEN Case List
Chinese authorities claim Liu Xia is a free woman. But one week after the death of her husband, the Nobel laureate and democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, a visit to the couple’s Beijing home immediately gives the lie to that claim.
THE GUARDIAN

In Suu Kyi’s Myanmar, concern rises over press freedom
In the old, military-ruled Myanmar, it would not have been a surprising scene: three journalists, bound together in chains, raising shackled hands in unison and speaking out against their repressive government. But this moment was not from another era. It was recorded Tuesday, and it underscores how little has changed since the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won elections a year and a half ago.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Fake News That Provoked a Crisis in the Middle East
One of the key events leading up to the siege imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and several other Arab states last month was the hacking of Qatar’s state news agency by then-unidentified actors who planted false quotes attributed to the Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
NEW YORK MAGAZINE

Year after reporter killed in Ukraine, no progress in probe
After renowned journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bombing in central Kiev last year, Ukraine’s president promised all-out efforts to solve the case. Instead, say Ukrainian journalists, the case is mired in either incompetence or deliberate inaction. In a country where violence against journalists is frequent, reporters feel more in danger than ever.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

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