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Former White House strategist Steve Bannon is ousted from right-wing media outlet Breitbart after angering Trump with his comments in Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury.” Trump attorney sues publishers of Trump “dossier” on same day as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee releases the testimony of witnesses behind the disputed information cache and that the BuzzFeed editor who first published the expose writes that his decision to disclose it has been vindicated by subsequent events. Report reveals broad scrubbing of climate change references and information from federal websites. -Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director

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

U.S.

Steve Bannon Out At Breitbart News
The departure had been widely rumored and anticipated since Bannon was quoted in author Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House as saying, among other things, a meeting of Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump associates with a group of Russians during the presidential campaign was “treasonous.”
NPR

Russia dossier: Trump lawyer sues BuzzFeed for publishing document
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer is suing BuzzFeed hours after Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, unilaterally released a transcript of testimony from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. BuzzFeed vowed to fight the action in court.
THE GUARDIAN

Opinion: I’m Proud We Published the Trump-Russia Dossier
BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith writes, “Keeping the reporting process wrapped in mystery only helps those who oppose the free press. We strongly believed that publishing the disputed document whose existence we and others were reporting was in the public interest.”
NEW YORK TIMES

How Much Has ‘Climate Change’ Been Scrubbed From Federal Websites? A Lot.
The authors of the report wrote, “Removing information regarding climate change does not affect the reality of climate change, but may serve to obfuscate the subject and inject doubt regarding the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that it is caused by human activity.”
NEW YORK TIMES

Inmates Can’t Receive Donated Books Anymore; They Have to Buy Them
Instead of inmates being able to receive donated books in the mail from family members and community groups, inmates at three New York State prisons now have to purchase books selected by six, state-approved vendors. And the selection is limited, and expensive.
WNYC

 
Global

How China Used a Times Documentary as Evidence Against Its Subject
In 2015, after video journalist Jonah Kessel met Tashi Wangchuk, he made a short film about his efforts to raise the issue of Tibetan education to the central government and Chinese state media. Last week, that documentary was shown in court as the main evidence that Tashi was inciting separatism. (See PEN America statement.)
NEW YORK TIMES

Reuters Reporters Are Charged in Myanmar With Obtaining State Secrets
U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, two journalists for the Reuters news agency, were formally charged in Myanmar with obtaining state secrets, prosecutors said, in a case seen as a key test of the country’s nascent political freedoms.
NEW YORK TIMES

Iran tried to block the internet to disrupt protests. It wound up disrupting daily life
As authorities have tried to govern the internet, Iranians have over the years become adept at circumventing online censorship. But as more Iranians use the internet—and the internet plays a bigger role in a web-connected society—crackdowns have broader effects. For many, internet restrictions in recent weeks disrupted daily life more than the protests did.
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Chief Of Rights Group Memorial’s Chechnya Office Detained On Drug Charge
The head of the prominent Russian human rights group Memorial’s office in Chechnya has been detained on a drug charge, according to Chechen officials and a lawyer for the rights defender, though Government critics in Russia and other former Soviet republics say authorities sometimes use drug charges to justify illegal arrests.
RADIO FREE EUROPE

How Did #MeToo Get Started In China? Not Even Government Censorship Can Silence It
The #MeToo movement has been slow to catch on in China, where social and political movements are often suppressed; however, the tide is slowly beginning to turn, as some women in China are launching their own movement, called #WoYeShi, and making history with their activism.
BUSTLE

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