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(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 journal-
ists 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’’ rather than in 
conflict zones; 
Whereas, according to Reporters Without Borders, 547 jour-
nalists 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 journal-
ists, were jailed across 36 different countries during 
2022; 
Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journal-
ists— 
(1) at least 67 journalists and media workers were 
killed around the world in 2022, at least 41 in direct con-
nection to their work, an almost 50-percent increase from 
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2021, driven by a high number of journalist deaths re-
lated 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 assign-
ment was Latin America, whose 30 slain journalists ac-
counted for nearly half of the global total; 
(4) the vast majority of killers of journalists con-
tinue 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 per-
cent and marks another grim milestone in a deteriorating 
media landscape; and 
(6) Iran, China, Burma, Tu¨rkiye (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 free-
dom 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 de-
nial of visas to foreign journalists, imprisonment, the de-
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nial of medical care to imprisoned journalists, and cur-
tailing 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 arbi-
trary 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 im-
prisonment of at least 28 journalists over the past 3 
years, at least 13 of whom are currently detained accord-
ing 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 draco-
nian ‘‘zero-Covid’’ policy in cities throughout the country, 
in the largest protests to convulse China since the pro-
democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989; and 
(6) suppressing dissent through a ‘‘sovereign Inter-
net’’ model and exporting technology to enhance the abil-
ity of like-minded authoritarian regimes to exert control 
online and monitor the activity of their people; 
Whereas the Russian Federation continues its full assault 
against all independent media actors both inside Russia 
and abroad, a situation that has drastically worsened 
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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 impris-
oning journalists including foreign correspondents for 
their reporting, including— 
(A) the arrest in March 2023 of Evan 
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter and 
United States citizen, on baseless, politically moti-
vated espionage charges, the first time an American 
journalist has been detained in Russia since the Cold 
War, and for which the Department of State on 
April 10, 2023, deemed Gershkovich to be ‘‘wrong-
fully detained’’ by Russia; 
(B) Ivan Safronov, a correspondent with Rus-
sian 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 in-
formation about the Russian military in February 
2023; 
(D) Sergey Mikhaylov, publisher of the inde-
pendent 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; 
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(2) relying on restrictive legislation, including a re-
pressive ‘‘foreign agents’’ law, as justification to harass, 
fine, and freeze the assets of media organizations, includ-
ing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and shuttering 
independent news outlets as ‘‘foreign agents’’, such as 
Novaya Gazeta, a landmark independent newspaper 
founded in 1993, which suspended operations in Russia 
in March 2022 after receiving warnings from the authori-
ties citing the country’s foreign agents law, and was 
stripped of its print and online media licenses in Sep-
tember 2022; 
(3) arresting and detaining journalists covering 
peaceful protests, and intensifying already widespread 
harassment, repression, and government-driven retalia-
tion, 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 applica-
tions, including independent news sites, social media plat-
forms, 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’’ 
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in January 2023 and de facto banned by Russian au-
thorities; 
Whereas, since the start of Russia’s full-scale offensive 
against Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders has docu-
mented attacks directly targeting journalists wearing a 
‘‘Press’’ armband, including the— 
(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 dem-
onstrating that the information is in itself an essential 
target of Russian forces in the conflict; 
Whereas the Belarusian regime has conducted sweeping at-
tacks against the press since President Alexander 
Lukashenko’s fraudulent election in August 2020, with 
journalists and media workers harassed, assaulted, im-
prisoned (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 inde-
pendent information and freedom of expression, includ-
ing— 
(1) Katsiaryna Andreyeva, a correspondent with Po-
land-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 
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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 pre-
existing 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 distrib-
uting materials calling for actions aimed at harming na-
tional security in March 2023; 
(4) Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist who, while work-
ing 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 ‘‘extrem-
ist’’, and any individual charged with creating or partici-
pating in a group that has been labeled ‘‘extremist’’ faces 
up to 10 years in prison; 
Whereas Iran continues to severely restrict freedoms of the 
press and speech, subjecting journalists to aggressive in-
timidation, arbitrary summons, arrests, travel bans, con-
ditional releases, torture, inhumane treatment, and un-
substantiated and unjust sentences, with the situation se-
verely worsening since the start of the 2022 protests fol-
lowing 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini’s death 
in police custody on September 16; 
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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, in-
cluding espionage, that can be punishable with execution; 
and 
(2) Yalda Moaiery, a prominent female photo-
journalist 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’’ and ‘‘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 Afghani-
stan 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— 
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(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 se-
ries of police cases in Pakistan in relation to his work; 
and 
(2) the March 2023 Government ban on satellite tel-
evision channels from airing live and recorded speeches 
by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the tem-
porary suspension of the license of ARY News for broad-
casting a speech by Khan; 
Whereas Morocco has experienced severe crackdowns on free-
dom 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 retalia-
tory charges in May 2020 and is serving a 5-year sen-
tence; 
(3) Ali Anouzla, a journalist and editor of the news 
website Lakome, who has been repeatedly arrested on re-
taliatory charges relating to his journalism, including 
‘‘apologism for terrorism’’ and ‘‘incitement to terrorism’’; 
and 
(4) Omar Radi, a journalist who was arrested on 
suspicion of espionage in June 2020 shortly after Am-
nesty International reported that the Moroccan authori-
ties hacked his phone and monitored his activities; 
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Whereas, in Algeria, the situation of press freedom deterio-
rated in 2022 and 2023, with several journalists pros-
ecuted 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 Liberte´, whose 
owner decided to close after 30 years as a result of the 
interminable pressure exerted at the highest level in re-
cent 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, ac-
cording to Reporters Without Borders, including Alaa 
Abd El Fattah, a blogger who was sentenced to 5 years 
in prison for ‘‘broadcasting false news’’ after having al-
ready endured torture and a hunger strike during his 
time in jail; 
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 inde-
pendent reporting, including female journalist Pham 
Doan Trang, a recipient of the International Press Free-
dom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 
2022 and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom 
Prize for Impact in 2019; 
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Whereas, in Burma, Reporters Without Borders asserts that 
‘‘press freedom has been set back 10 years in 10 days’’ 
after the February 2021 military coup, as— 
(1) media workers were forced into hiding and con-
fronted 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 re-
voked by the military; and 
(3) journalists were detained at alarming rates, with 
75 journalists currently being detained according to Re-
porters Without Borders; 
Whereas, in the Philippines, journalist and Nobel Prize lau-
reate 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’’ and other topics, and she still faces the threat of 
imprisonment on three remaining criminal charges, in-
cluding the cyber libel case that she was convicted of in 
June 2020, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals in 
July 2022 and is currently pending a judgement by the 
Supreme Court; 
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 persecu-
tion, and conditional release restrictions, which inhibit re-
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porters 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 con-
finement, 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 pris-
on; 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 resi-
dent Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018 by 
a team of Saudi operatives inside the Saudi Arabian con-
sulate in Istanbul, Tu¨rkiye, and the Senate unanimously 
approved a resolution stating that Mr. Khashoggi’s mur-
der was carried out at the behest of Crown Prince Mo-
hammed bin Salman; 
Whereas a Turkish judge, likely at the behest of President 
Recep Tayyip Erdog˘an, issued a ruling in March 2022 
that closed the criminal trial of the perpetrators in 
Tu¨rkiye and transferred it to Saudi Arabia, where the 
case against the perpetrators was promptly dismissed, 
foreclosing the prospect that they will ever be held ac-
countable; 
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Whereas, in Ethiopia, numerous journalists were arbitrarily 
detained in connection to their work, a trend that wors-
ened 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 disrup-
tions, including as recently as April 2023, and the Janu-
ary 2023 suspension of 15 media outlets and their rep-
resentatives from operating in the country’s Somali Re-
gional State; 
Whereas, in South Sudan, despite repeated calls for a cred-
ible inquiry into the killing of journalist Christopher 
Allen, a dual United States-United Kingdom citizen who 
was deliberately gunned down in August 2017 while re-
porting 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 serv-
ing a 10-year prison term, following a January 2023 con-
viction stemming from her critical commentary on gov-
ernance issues in the country; 
Whereas, across Latin America and the Caribbean, authori-
tarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela con-
tinue their longstanding practice of stifling dissent by 
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threatening, harassing, and detaining independent jour-
nalists and other media actors, and the Committee to 
Protect Journalists documented 30 journalists killed in 
Latin America in 2022, reflecting the outsize risk jour-
nalists in the region face while covering topics such as 
crime, corruption, gang violence, and the environment; 
Whereas, in Mexico, which remains the most dangerous coun-
try 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 Journal-
ists, 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 re-
sources and political support to provide adequate protec-
tion to all journalists under threat who have requested 
protection; 
(5) Fredid Roma´n, founder of the La Realidad 
newspaper 
and 
a 
columnist 
for 
the 
Ve´rtice 
de 
Chilpancingo newspaper, was shot and killed in the 
southern Mexican state of Guerrero in August 2022, ex-
emplifying the government’s failure to make the country 
safe for reporters; 
(6) Alfonso Margarito Martı´nez 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 
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