Responding to growing threats to freedom of the press and expression around the world, reaffirming the centrality of a free and independent press to the health of democracy, and reaffirming freedom of the press as a priority of the United States Government in promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance on World Press Freedom Day.

Whereas Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted at Paris, December 10, 1948, states, Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Whereas Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted on December 16, 1966, states, Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. Whereas, in 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed May 3 of each year as World Press Freedom Day (1) celebrate the fundamental principles of freedom of the press; (2) evaluate freedom of the press around the world; (3) defend the media against attacks on its independence; and (4) pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives while working in their profession; Whereas, on December 18, 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/163 on the safety of journalists and the problem of impunity, which unequivocally condemns all attacks on, and violence against, journalists and media workers, including torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and intimidation and harassment in conflict and nonconflict situations; Whereas the theme for World Press Freedom Day 2023 is Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for All Other Human Rights Whereas Thomas Jefferson, who recognized the importance of the press in a constitutional republic, wrote in 1786, Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. Whereas the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act of 2009 ( Public Law 111–166 22 U.S.C. 2151 Whereas Freedom House’s publication Freedom in the World 2023 Whereas Freedom House data show that freedom of expression, for the media and individuals, has declined more than any other civil liberty over the last 17 years, and infringement on free expression is one of the biggest drivers of democratic backsliding globally; Whereas the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, expresses concerns about an increase in polarization amplified by information chaos, and notes that within democratic societies, divisions are growing due to the spread of opinion media and disinformation amplified by social media, while at the international level, democracies are being weakened by the asymmetry between open societies and despotic regimes that control media and online platforms while waging propaganda wars; Whereas attempts to silence the media continue to multiply around the globe, with traditional methods of censorship, violence, and harassment being accompanied by increasingly pervasive digital surveillance, intimidation, and attacks; Whereas the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that journalists and media outlets around the world have been targeted by sophisticated spyware products that pose a severe risk to their safety and the safety of their sources; Whereas Freedom House reports that journalists and others exercising their freedom of expression continue to be victims of transnational repression, tactics used by governments beyond their borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles, including assassinations, unlawful deportations, detentions, renditions, physical and digital threats, harassment, and coercion by proxy, and journalists have been the victims in 11 percent of incidents of physical transnational repression identified by Freedom House since 2014; Whereas, according to Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2022 (1) online journalists targeted for their reporting; (2) 40 countries blocking websites featuring political, social, or religious outlets, including many news outlets, an all-time high since 2011; and (3) in 40 countries journalists, bloggers, human rights activists, and others experienced physical violence in retaliation for expressing themselves online; Whereas the Department of Justice in January 2023 charged 3 men in an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill Masih Alinejad, an opposition activist who worked for years as a journalist in Iran, has worked for Voice of America’s Farsi-language network since 2015, and is now a United States citizen; Whereas Reporters Without Borders reports that 55 journalists were killed in 2022 (including 7 women journalists), an almost 15-percent increase compared with 2021, and that more than 60 percent of those killed lost their lives in countries considered to be at peace Whereas, according to Reporters Without Borders, 547 journalists and 21 media workers were imprisoned as of April 6, 2023; Whereas the Freedom to Write Index 2022, published by PEN America, noted that at least 311 writers and public intellectuals, including columnists and editorial journalists, were jailed across 36 different countries during 2022; Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists— (1) at least 67 journalists and media workers were killed around the world in 2022, at least 41 in direct connection to their work, an almost 50-percent increase from 2021, driven by a high number of journalist deaths related to coverage of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a sharp uptick of journalist deaths in Latin America; (2) more than half of the 67 killings occurred in 3 countries: Ukraine (15), Mexico (13), and Haiti (7); (3) the deadliest region for journalists on assignment was Latin America, whose 30 slain journalists accounted for nearly half of the global total; (4) the vast majority of killers of journalists continue to get away with murder, and the perpetrators have faced no punishment in nearly 80 percent of the 263 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work globally between September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022; (5) at least 363 journalists worldwide were in prison in relation to their work as of December 1, 2022, a new global high that overtakes last year’s record by 20 percent and marks another grim milestone in a deteriorating media landscape; and (6) Iran, China, Burma, Türkiye (Turkey), and Belarus were the top 5 jailers of journalists worldwide, respectively, responsible for nearly 60 percent of all jailed journalists; Whereas the People’s Republic of China maintains one of the most repressive media environments in the world, with at least 104 journalists being currently detained according to Reporters Without Borders, and seeks to curtail freedom of expression and political speech inside and outside the country, including by— (1) targeting independent and foreign media in China through systematic harassment, including the denial of visas to foreign journalists, imprisonment, the denial of medical care to imprisoned journalists, and curtailing access to legal representation; (2) pervasively monitoring and censoring online and social media content, including through the banning of virtual private networks; (3) spreading propaganda to foreign audiences through the United Front Work Department and related activities; (4) indiscriminately stifling dissent and freedom of expression in Hong Kong, especially through the arbitrary use of national security legislation such as the 2020 National Security Law, which has led to the suppression of all meaningful political dissent, including the closure of several independent news organizations and the imprisonment of at least 28 journalists over the past 3 years, at least 13 of whom are currently detained according to Reporters Without Borders, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of Apple Daily and an outspoken democracy advocate, who is facing charges that could result in life imprisonment; (5) cracking down on thousands of civilians who in November 2022 peacefully protested the regime’s draconian zero-Covid (6) suppressing dissent through a sovereign Internet Whereas the Russian Federation continues its full assault against all independent media actors both inside Russia and abroad, a situation that has drastically worsened since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, including by— (1) passing draconian legislation that criminalizes any public opposition to or independent news reporting about the unprovoked war against Ukraine, and imprisoning journalists including foreign correspondents for their reporting, including— (A) wrongfully detained (B) Ivan Safronov, a correspondent with Russian business dailies Kommersant and Vedomosti, who was sentenced to 22 years in jail on treason charges in September 2022; (C) Maria Ponomarenko, a correspondent with the RusNews independent news website, who was sentenced to 6 years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military in February 2023; (D) Sergey Mikhaylov, publisher of the independent newspaper Listok, who was arrested and charged for spreading false information about the Russian military in April 2022; and (E) Mikhail Afanasyev, editor-in-chief of the online magazine Novy Fokus, who was arrested and charged with spreading false information about the Russian military in April 2022; (2) foreign agents foreign agents (3) arresting and detaining journalists covering peaceful protests, and intensifying already widespread harassment, repression, and government-driven retaliation, including 22 journalists being imprisoned as of April 6, 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders, 9 of whom were arrested since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine; (4) allegedly kidnapping, torturing, detaining, and disappearing journalists in Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine, including Amet Suleimanov, Asan Akhmetov, Iryna Danylovych, Marlen Asanov, Nariman Celal, Oleksiy Bessarabov, Osman Arifmemetov, Remzi Bekirov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, Server Mustafayev, Seyran Salievn, Timur Ibragimov, and Vladyslav Yesypenko; and (5) excessive blocking of internet access and applications, including independent news sites, social media platforms, and other tools Russian citizens rely on to access independent information and opinions and to connect with each other and the outside world, including Meduza, a leading independent Russian-language news website based outside of Russia, which was labeled undesirable Whereas, since the start of Russia’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders has documented attacks directly targeting journalists wearing a Press (1) killing of 8 journalists and media workers; (2) torture by electric shock, beatings, and mock executions of journalists working for the international press; (3) targeted kidnappings of journalists and their families in occupied regions of Ukraine to put pressure on their reporting; and (4) deliberate attacks targeting media facilities demonstrating that the information is in itself an essential target of Russian forces in the conflict; Whereas the Belarusian regime has conducted sweeping attacks against the press since President Alexander Lukashenko’s fraudulent election in August 2020, with journalists and media workers harassed, assaulted, imprisoned (34 of them as of April 6, 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders), or otherwise retaliated against for their work, and has stripped the accreditation of and detained numerous journalists to suppress independent information and freedom of expression, including— (1) Katsiaryna Andreyeva, a correspondent with Poland-based independent broadcaster Belsat TV, who was serving a 2-year prison term for filming live broadcast of the violent dispersal of a protest against President Lukashenko in November 2020, and was sentenced to 8 additional years in prison on treason charges in July 2022; (2) Ksenia Lutskina, a former correspondent for the state broadcaster Belteleradio, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of conspiring to seize state power in September 2022, and Lutskina has a preexisting brain tumor that has grown in detention and is not receiving appropriate medical care; (3) Maryna Zolatava, chief editor of the independent news website Tut.by, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of incitement to hatred and distributing materials calling for actions aimed at harming national security in March 2023; (4) Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist who, while working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in November 2021 and sentenced in June 2022 to 6 years in prison on charges of forming an extremist group; and (5) the labeling of dozens of media outlets and the exiled Belarusian Association of Journalists as extremist extremist Whereas Iran continues to severely restrict freedoms of the press and speech, subjecting journalists to aggressive intimidation, arbitrary summons, arrests, travel bans, conditional releases, torture, inhumane treatment, and unsubstantiated and unjust sentences, with the situation severely worsening since the start of the 2022 protests following 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody on September 16; Whereas Iran was the world’s leading jailer of journalists and the biggest jailer of female journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ December 2022 prison census, with the arrests of at least 100 journalists in Iran in the last 4 months of 2022 documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, including— (1) female journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who were imprisoned in September 2022 after breaking the story of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody, and the 2 journalists face antistate charges, including espionage, that can be punishable with execution; and (2) Yalda Moaiery, a prominent female photojournalist who was among the first journalists to cover the nationwide protests in Tehran, and she was arrested by antiriot police despite having press credentials, and was later sentenced to 6 years in prison on charges of spreading propaganda against the system acting against national security Whereas a 2022 report by the International Federation of Journalists and the Afghanistan National Journalists Union shows that at least 318 media outlets in Afghanistan have had to close since the takeover of the country by the Taliban, and that just 2,334 journalists are still working in the country, a significant decline from a high of 5,069 journalists in the period preceding the fall of Kabul in August 2021, and that 72 percent of journalists who have lost their jobs have been female journalists; Whereas, in Pakistan, the Government maintained high levels of media censorship, and impunity persists in cases of killings and physical attacks on journalists, including— (1) the October 2022 killing of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, where he had sought safety after feeling Pakistan in August 2022 while facing a series of police cases in Pakistan in relation to his work; and (2) the March 2023 Government ban on satellite television channels from airing live and recorded speeches by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the temporary suspension of the license of ARY News for broadcasting a speech by Khan; Whereas Morocco has experienced severe crackdowns on freedom of expression and supporters of a free press, with 13 journalists currently being detained, including— (1) Taoufik Bouachrine, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Akhbar al-Youm, who was arrested in February 2018 on retaliatory charges related to his journalism and is serving a 15-year sentence; (2) Soulaimane Raissouni, a columnist and editor-in-chief of Akhbar al-Youm, who succeeded publisher Taoufik Bouachrine and was arrested on similar retaliatory charges in May 2020 and is serving a 5-year sentence; (3) Ali Anouzla, a journalist and editor of the news website Lakome, who has been repeatedly arrested on retaliatory charges relating to his journalism, including apologism for terrorism incitement to terrorism (4) Omar Radi, a journalist who was arrested on suspicion of espionage in June 2020 shortly after Amnesty International reported that the Moroccan authorities hacked his phone and monitored his activities; Whereas, in Algeria, the situation of press freedom deteriorated in 2022 and 2023, with several journalists prosecuted for their work, including— (1) Ihsane El Kadi, who was prosecuted several times and sentenced to 3 years in prison in April 2023; and (2) newspapers facing strong pressures against their editorial lines, including the newspaper Liberté, whose owner decided to close after 30 years as a result of the interminable pressure exerted at the highest level in recent months against the paper’s editorial line; Whereas Egypt’s restrictions on the media have accelerated under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since 2013, with at least 22 journalists imprisoned as of April 6, 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders, including Alaa Abd El Fattah, a blogger who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for broadcasting false news Whereas, in Syria, Austin Tice, a United States journalist who was taken prisoner while reporting on Syria’s civil war more than 10 years ago in August 2012, remains wrongfully detained by the Assad regime; Whereas freedom of the press continues to be under assault throughout Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, where at least 22 journalists and bloggers are being held in jail, some with sentences of up to 15 years for their independent reporting, including female journalist Pham Doan Trang, a recipient of the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2022 and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2019; Whereas, in Burma, Reporters Without Borders asserts that press freedom has been set back 10 years in 10 days (1) media workers were forced into hiding and confronted censorship, harassment, internet blocks, beatings, interrogations, threats, and injuries at the hands of the military; (2) multiple independent media outlets had to cease operations or close altogether or had their licenses revoked by the military; and (3) journalists were detained at alarming rates, with 75 journalists currently being detained according to Reporters Without Borders; Whereas, in the Philippines, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa, a United States citizen, continues to be targeted and judicially harassed by the Government’s aggressive campaign against independent media after her reporting on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs Whereas the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to maintain an especially hostile environment toward journalists through systematic and arbitrary arrests (25 of whom are currently being detained according to Reporters Without Borders), torture and inhumane or degrading treatment, lengthy pretrial detentions, political persecution, and conditional release restrictions, which inhibit reporters and columnists from traveling or returning to their professional work postdetention, including— (1) Maha Al-Rafidi Al-Qahtani, a journalist and writer arrested in September 2019, held in solitary confinement, and physically abused while in prison; (2) Abdulrahman Farhana, a columnist detained in February 2019, charged with membership in a terrorist organization; (3) Zuhair Kutbi, a journalist jailed in January 2019, who reportedly suffers from torture, malnourishment, and denial of cancer treatment in prison; and (4) Raif Badawi, a blogger who recently completed a 10-year prison sentence on blasphemy charges, and who remains subjected to a further 10-year travel ban which prevents him from uniting with his family who received asylum in Canada; Whereas Washington Post journalist and United States resident Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018 by a team of Saudi operatives inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Türkiye, and the Senate unanimously approved a resolution stating that Mr. Khashoggi’s murder was carried out at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; Whereas a Turkish judge, likely at the behest of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, issued a ruling in March 2022 that closed the criminal trial of the perpetrators in Türkiye and transferred it to Saudi Arabia, where the case against the perpetrators was promptly dismissed, foreclosing the prospect that they will ever be held accountable; Whereas, in Ethiopia, numerous journalists were arbitrarily detained in connection to their work, a trend that worsened during the civil war and continued even after the signing of a peace agreement in November 2022, and journalists faced other additional forms of censorship by Ethiopian authorities, such as repeated internet disruptions, including as recently as April 2023, and the January 2023 suspension of 15 media outlets and their representatives from operating in the country’s Somali Regional State; Whereas, in South Sudan, despite repeated calls for a credible inquiry into the killing of journalist Christopher Allen, a dual United States-United Kingdom citizen who was deliberately gunned down in August 2017 while reporting on the civil conflict in circumstances that could amount to war crimes, according to Reporters Without Borders, there has been no justice in this case; Whereas, in Somalia, freelance journalist and press freedom advocate Abdalle Ahmed Mumin faced months of legal harassment, including being detained several times and later being convicted of disobeying government orders in connection to his objection to government plans to censor media coverage of press freedom issues, and Mr. Mumin was released on March 26, 2022, after more than a month in prison; Whereas, in Burundi, journalist Floriane Irangabiye is serving a 10-year prison term, following a January 2023 conviction stemming from her critical commentary on governance issues in the country; Whereas, across Latin America and the Caribbean, authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela continue their longstanding practice of stifling dissent by threatening, harassing, and detaining independent journalists and other media actors, and the Committee to Protect Journalists documented 30 journalists killed in Latin America in 2022, reflecting the outsize risk journalists in the region face while covering topics such as crime, corruption, gang violence, and the environment; Whereas, in Mexico, which remains the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists— (1) murders, death threats, and legal impunity cause journalists to self-censor their reporting out of fear; (2) according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 13 journalists were killed in Mexico in 2022, the highest number the press freedom organization has ever documented in a single year in the country since it started keeping records in 1992; (3) 28 journalists are currently counted as forcibly disappeared in Mexico, according to Reporters Without Borders; (4) Mexico’s Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists lacks the resources and political support to provide adequate protection to all journalists under threat who have requested protection; (5) Fredid Román, founder of the La Realidad newspaper and a columnist for the Vértice de Chilpancingo newspaper, was shot and killed in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero in August 2022, exemplifying the government’s failure to make the country safe for reporters; (6) Alfonso Margarito Martínez Esquivel, 49, a photojournalist who specialized in covering crime, was gunned down in Tijuana on January 17, 2022, and he worked for the magazine Semanario Zeta, while often also covering stories for the newspaper Zeta and the daily La Jornada de Baja California; and (7) Lourdes Maldonado López was gunned down on January 23, 2022, outside her home in Tijuana, by 2 individuals who arrived in a taxi and picked up their spent bullet casings before leaving, and an experienced and very outspoken journalist committed to combating violence and corruption, Maldonado was the founder and host of Brebaje con Lourdes Maldonado, a local news program on Facebook; Whereas, in Haiti, at least 7 journalists were killed in 2022, including 2 by the police, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; Whereas, under the auspices of the United States Agency for Global Media, the United States Government provides financial assistance to several editorially independent media outlets, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio y Televisión Martí, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks— (1) which report and broadcast news, information, and analysis in critical regions around the world; and (2) whose journalists regularly face harassment, fines, and imprisonment for their work; and Whereas freedom of the press— (1) is a key component of democratic governance and socioeconomic development; and (2) enhances public accountability, transparency, and participation in civil society and democratic governance: Now, therefore, be it That the House of Representatives— (1) condemns threats to freedom of the press and free expression around the world; (2) remembers the bravery of journalists and media workers around the world who, despite threats to their safety, play an essential role in promoting government accountability, defending democratic activity, and strengthening civil society; (3) remembers journalists and media workers who have lost their lives carrying out their work; (4) calls on governments abroad to implement United Nations General Assembly Resolution 74/157 (2019) by thoroughly investigating and seeking to resolve outstanding cases of violence against journalists, including murders and kidnappings, while ensuring the protection of witnesses; (5) condemns all actions around the world that suppress freedom of the press; (6) reaffirms the centrality of freedom of the press to efforts of the United States Government to support democracy, mitigate conflict, and promote good governance around the world; and (7) calls on the President and the Secretary of State to— (A) preserve and build upon the leadership of the United States Government on issues relating to freedom of the press and journalist safety, on the basis of the protections afforded the American people under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; (B) improve the rapid identification, publication, and response by the United States Government to threats against freedom of the press around the world; (C) urge foreign governments to promptly and transparently investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of threats, harassment, and attacks against journalists; (D) leverage United States foreign assistance to support independent media, address disinformation, and support technologies that allow for expanded access to independent reporting in countries where authoritarian regimes control or limit the internet; and (E) continue to highlight the issue of threats against freedom of the press in the annual country reports on human rights practices of the Department of State and through diplomatic channels.

Summary: This resolution affirms the importance of free expression and freedom of the press around the world and condemns threats to these freedoms. The resolution calls on the President and the Department of State to (1) urge foreign governments to bring to justice those who threaten or attack journalists, and (2) leverage foreign assistance to help expand access to independent media in countries where authoritarian regimes control the internet.