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. *This mailing list is currently in BETA as we work out the kinks. Please send your feedback and suggestions to [email protected]

Bahrain rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab freed from jail
Bahraini human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab has been pardoned by King Hamad after serving three months of a six-month jail sentence. BBC NEWS

Cambodia passes controversial NGO draft law despite protests, boycott
Cambodia’s government approved a controversial draft law on Monday that puts thousands of non-government organizations in the country under heightened scrutiny. The Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations grants the government sweeping powers to monitor and clamp down on civil society groups that are deemed a threat to national security. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES

British Bank freezes account of Russian news agency
Russia on Monday said the state news agency Rossiya Segodnya had had a bank account closed in London in a move that it said was connected to sanctions over Ukraine. AGENCE-FRANCE PRESSE

Detained Chinese journalist working for Germany’s Die Zeit freed without charge
A Chinese journalist who helped cover the Hong Kong democracy protests for a German publication was freed without charge Thursday following nine months in detention. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mali-Ivorian journalist arrested and interrogated after reporting on Jihadist militants
Tié Traoré, a journalist with L’Inter, an independent Ivorian daily, was arrested in Fakola, Mali which is about 20 km away from Côte d’Ivoire. ALL AFRICA

Jason Rezaian has third court hearing in Iran
According to The Washington Post, Jason Rezaian was brought before a closed-door session of the Revolutionary Court where his remaining charges were “reviewed” without conclusion. No date to resume the proceedings was set. USA TODAY

Jordan court frees journalist accused of violating news ban
A government-owned newspaper says Jordan’s state security court has released a staff reporter who was detained last week for allegedly violating a ban on writing about a foiled terror plot. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

School Libraries Are Under Attack
From coast to coast, elementary and high school libraries are being neglected, defunded, repurposed, abandoned, and closed. THE NEW REPUBLIC

Reported harassment of Nicaraguan journalists highlights dangers of reporting during protests
A year after Nicaraguan journalists called on authorities for protection during anti-government protests, several were reportedly threatened during demonstrations in Managua last week. Various news outlets have reported that journalists caught in the middle of demonstrations in the nation’s capital on July 8 were harassed and detained by police officers. KNIGHT CENTER

How Microsoft Bing censors the Middle East
Microsoft’s search engine enforces “safe search” in a number of countries, including across the whole of the Middle East and North Africa. Researchers claim that Microsoft was filtering “Arabic and English keywords that could yield sex- or LGBT-related images and content.” ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION