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Myanmar human rights group ‘forced’ to cancel launch of report on army torture
Myanmar rights group Ta’ang Women’s Organisation (TWO) has claimed it had to cancel the public launch of a report on alleged army torture and war crimes after two hotels backed down from agreeing to host the event. The TWO blamed the regional government for forcing the the hotels in Yangon to drop plans to host a press conference this week. THE GUARDIAN

Turkey’s internet censorship after the Istanbul attack is nothing new
The history of how the Turkish government censors the Internet is long and complicated enough to fill a book. And the bans don’t adhere to a particular pattern. They are sudden, swift and often come off as reactionary. MASHABLE

American journalist in rebel-held Syria reports barely dodging a missile strike
American journalist and documentary filmmaker Bilal Abdul Kareem, reporting from Syrian rebel-controlled territory near Aleppo, says he was nearly killed in what he suspects was a drone strike last Sunday. THE INTERCEPT

Rising from the wreckage of Kyrgyzstan’s largest Russian-language newspaper
The story of the rise and fall of the news portal Vb.kg is one of the most dramatic and contested in the history of independent media in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. The name Vecherniy Bishkek is most often associated with the large-circulation Russian language newspaper that a series of governments in the Central Asian republic of six million people have sought to control. GLOBAL VOICES ADVOX

The life of a state journalist in Eritrea
Journalist Abraham T. Zere has been identified as a ‘security threat’, and watched his colleagues go to prison. Now exiled in the USA, he reveals the dangers facing writers in the “world’s most censored country”. THE INDEPENDENT

In China, homophobia and fear of ‘foreign forces’ go hand in hand
On June 21, a lesbian couple from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies had a romantic public proposal after their graduation ceremony. But later that same day, the Wechat public account of a Guangzhou-based group for LGBT people called Girlfriend was taken down permanently by censors because of their coverage of this public proposal. GLOBAL VOICES