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Fact-checkers find several falsehoods in Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sides with a school board that expelled a student for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Facebook removes dozens of liberal and conservative hyperpartisan pages after they were found to have been administered by the same fake account. -Anoosh Gasparian, External Relation Manager.

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

U.S.

Fact-Checking President Trump’s Speech to the U.N. General Assembly
“A skilled public speaker often knows how to craft his or her words for the audience. But Trump started off his speech with a number of boasts lifted straight from his campaign rallies. The following is an examination of 14 key claims made by the president in his speech, listed in the order in which he made them.”
WASHINGTON POST

Texas Attorney General Stands With School That Expelled Teen for Refusing to Stand for Pledge of Allegiance
In response to the temporary expulsion of high school senior India Landry in 2017, Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a release, “School children cannot unilaterally refuse to participate in the pledge. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents have a fundamental interest in guiding the education and upbringing of their children, which is a critical aspect of liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.”
THE ROOT

Facebook Has Removed More Than A Dozen Big Conservative And Liberal Political Pages
Facebook has removed over a dozen hyperpartisan pages with more than 30 million combined fans after discovering they were administered by the same fake account and were in violation of policies against spamming. All of the pages had recently, and almost exclusively, been promoting links to LifeZette.com, the conservative website founded by Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
BUZZFEED NEWS

Man Who Threatened Boston Globe May Have also Called New York Times, NFL
Robert Chain pleaded not guilty to charges that he threatened Globe employees in August after calling them “the enemy of the people,” following the coordinated editorial response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media. Investigators are probing whether he made similar threats to the New York Times and National Football League.
NBC NEWS

For Once-Jailed Journalist, the Struggle Is Not Over
University of Michigan librarians and translators are working to unearth three decades of Emilio Gutiérrez Soto’s journalism from local outlets in Mexico’s northern Chihuahua state, after the immigration judge ruling in an upcoming hearing in Texas cast doubt over Gutiérrez Soto’s work or his reason to fear persecution if deported.
POYNTER

 
Global

Human Rights Watch condemns Digital Security Act
Digital Security Act, passed by the Bangladesh parliament, contains various sections that have the scope to criminalize free expression. Section 21 authorizes sentences of up to 14 years in prison for spreading “propaganda and campaign against the Liberation War of Bangladesh or spirit of the Liberation War or Father of the Nation.”
DHAKA TRIBUNE

Austrian Leader Rejects Far-Right Plan to Shut Out Some Media
Austria’s chancellor said a proposal by a far-right coalition partner to shut out several newspapers was unacceptable. Two of the three main national newspapers published details of an email sent by the Interior Ministry, controlled by the far-right Freedom Party, suggesting communications with the papers and one other be reduced to “what is absolutely necessary”.
REUTERS

Duterte’s Media War in the Philippines
Though the Philippines has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to operate in, President Rodrigo Duterte has raised concerns even further on a number of fronts, from government threats and restrictions on the press to impunity in the killings of journalists.
THE DIPLOMAT

Statue Wars: What Should We Do with Troublesome Monuments?
“From Cape Town and Berlin to Charlottesville and the Oxford University campus, the global protest movement to tear down memorials that reinforce racism is rewriting the very story of our cities. Should any monument be safe?”
GUARDIAN

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