PEN’s Free Expression Digest brings you a daily curated round-up of the most important free expression-related stories from around the web. Subscribe here. Please send your feedback and suggestions to [email protected]

Ethiopian journalist: ‘I was jailed and tortured’
Muluken Tesfaw, one of Ethiopia’s most critical journalists, is in Europe and too scared to return as press freedom declines dramatically in his country. DEUTSCHE WELLE

Sudanese journalist held without charge for a month after covering protests
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Sudanese authorities to release Ahmed Zuheir Daoud, a journalist who has been detained for nearly a month without charge. Daoud was arrested on April 13 while reporting on student protests for Al-Midan, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Iman Othman Ali, told CPJ yesterday. CPJ

U.S. envoy targets Egypt at U.N. over journalist arrests
Attacking journalists and prosecuting critical voices fuels violent extremism rather than preventing it, the United States told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday in a thinly veiled warning to Egypt, which chaired the meeting. BUSINESS INSIDER

Thailand: eight charged for mocking junta leader on Facebook
Thailand’s military junta should drop sedition and other criminal charges against eight people for mocking the prime minister on Facebook. The Facebook page shows memes and doctored photos, with satirical quotes, of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, who chairs the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta. HRW

Uganda blocks social media sites for presidential inauguration
Ugandan authorities should immediately restore access to social media websites and refrain from censoring any websites in the future, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Regulators blocked access to Twitter and Facebook, and to the messaging service WhatsApp today, according to press reports. CPJ

Journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima returns government compensation *PEN Case List
On May 11, journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima formally returned to the Colombian State funds that she received as compensation from the National Unit for Victim Reparations (Unidad Nacional de Atención y Reparación Integral a las Víctimas). This was an independent decision made by the journalist, and motivated by the vast contradiction in the authorities’ treatment of her case. IFEX

Mexican newspaper faces harassment
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the increasing harassment of the Mexican daily newspaper Vanguardia and its staff. In recent weeks, Vanguardia‘s website was attacked, police raided its owner’s ranch, a former local official sued the newspaper, and unknown men followed one of its reporters home. CPJ