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

Jailed Chinese journalist Gao Yu appeals sentence *PEN Case List
The 71-year-old Chinese journalist appealed on Tuesday against her seven-year jail sentence for “leaking state secrets”, a conviction condemned by free speech advocates worldwide. Named one of the International Press Institute’s 50 world press heroes in 2000, Gao has been a consistent critic of the ruling Communist party’s authoritarian policies. Her lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said he did not expect the guilty verdict to be overturned. THE GUARDIAN

Russian journalist, motorist rights activist assaulted in St. Petersburg
Unidentified assailants have attacked and beaten the St. Petersburg activist and journalist Alexander Kholodov, his employer Fontanka news portal reported. Kholodov was hospitalized with a broken nose, concussion, and bruises. He said two men attacked him when he was exiting an elevator in his apartment building Tuesday morning. THE MOSCOW TIMES

Bahraini photographer sentenced to ten years in prison
A Bahraini criminal court has sentenced freelance photographer Sayed Ahmed Al Mousawi to 10 years in prison on a terrorism charge and has stripped him of his nationality. Accused of giving SIM cards to “terrorist” demonstrators and taking photos of anti-government protests, Mousawi was convicted two days ago in a trial that had repeatedly been postponed since February. REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Vatican court rejects journalist’s bid to drop leaks charges
A Vatican tribunal on Tuesday rejected a journalist’s request to dismiss charges against him for publishing confidential documents as a trial opened in the Holy See’s latest leaks scandal. Journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi are accused of having published books about Vatican waste, greed, and mismanagement that were based in part on confidential Holy See documents. ABC NEWS

Opinion: Sisi’s war on reporters
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms has recorded 1,411 cases of forced disappearances so far this year. In one recent case, a groom was arrested at his own wedding. Egypt now holds an estimated 40,000 political prisoners. Meanwhile, its ruthlessness is rewarded by other governments with aid, weapons, and business deals. All in the name of that euphemism, stability. NEW YORK TIMES

Even after suicide, transgender activist’s fight for cremation lives on
In March 2014, May Peleg paid for her own cremation at Aley Shalechet, the only funeral home in Israel that offers the service, which is considered taboo in Jewish tradition. The 31-year-old transgender activist should have been cremated last week after she committed suicide. Instead, her body is in police custody. FORWARD

Chinese student protests textbooks describing homosexuality as a “disorder”
A gay Chinese student on Tuesday took the government to court over textbooks describing homosexuality as a “psychological disorder”, a landmark case in a country where discrimination remains common. Qiu Bai, 21, a student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, brought the action against the ministry of education, demanding that it give her details of how it approved materials and how they could be changed. HONG KONG FREE PRESS

Inside Anonymous’ messy cyberwar against ISIS
The Saturday morning following the deadly terrorists attacks in Paris, the hacktivist network Anonymous declared war on ISIS. In a widely distributed video, a figure in a Guy Fawkes mask promised the Islamist group that “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down.” So far, the underground hackers’ much-hyped digital war has generated lots of headlines, but not much in the way of results. MOTHER JONES