Title: Responding to widening threats to freedoms 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 in promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance on World Press Freedom Day.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution expresses concern about threats to freedom of the press around the world. It also commends journalists and media workers around the world and pays tribute to those who have died carrying out their work. It calls on the President and the Department of State to build upon U.S. leadership on press freedom issues.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 345 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 345

 Recognizing widening threats to freedoms 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 in promoting democracy, human 
rights, and good governance in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day 
                            on May 3, 2019.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 1, 2019

    Mr. Schiff (for himself and Mr. Chabot) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Recognizing widening threats to freedoms 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 in promoting democracy, human 
rights, and good governance in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day 
                            on May 3, 2019.

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, in 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed May 3 of each 
        year as ``World Press Freedom Day''--

    (1) to celebrate the fundamental principles of freedom of the press;

    (2) to evaluate freedom of the press around the world;

    (3) to defend the media against attacks on its independence; and

    (4) to 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 on May 3, 2019, is ``Media for 
        Democracy: Journalism and Democracy in Times of Disinformation'';
Whereas Thomas Jefferson, who recognized the importance of the press in a 
        constitutional republic, wisely declared, ``. . . were it left to me to 
        decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or 
        newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to 
        prefer the latter.'';
Whereas the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-166; 
        22 U.S.C. 2151 note), signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, 
        expanded the examination of the freedom of the press around the world in 
        the annual country reports on human rights practices of the Department 
        of State;
Whereas the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without 
        Borders, warns, ``The number of countries regarded as safe, where 
        journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while 
        authoritarian regimes tighten their grip on the media'';
Whereas, Freedom House's publication ``Freedom in the World 2019'' noted that 
        global freedom of expression has declined each year for the past 13 
        years;
Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2018--

    (1) at least 54 journalists were killed around the world for their 
work, of which at least 34 were singled out for murder;

    (2) the 2 deadliest countries for journalists on assignment were 
Afghanistan and Syria;

    (3) the most dangerous subject for a journalist to report on was 
politics, followed by war;

    (4) 251 journalists worldwide were in prison, with Turkey, China, and 
Egypt responsible for more than half of the jailed journalists;

    (5) 13 percent of the journalists in jail were female, an increase from 
8 percent in 2017;

    (6) 70 percent of the journalists who were imprisoned around the world 
faced antistate charges, such as belonging to or aiding groups deemed by 
authorities as terrorist organizations; and

    (7) the number of journalists imprisoned on charges of false news rose 
to 28 globally, compared with 9 such imprisonments in 2016;

Whereas the People's Republic of China maintains one of the worst media 
        environments in the world and seeks to curtail 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) using the full force of the State to stifle internal dissent 
including dissent online, particularly dissent that could lead to political 
change and content that criticizes China's leaders, however trivial, 
reportedly even to the point of censoring comparisons of Xi Jingping's 
looks with Winnie the Pooh;

    (4) spreading propaganda to foreign audiences through the United Front 
Work Department and related activities;

    (5) seeking to intimidate American-based journalists working for Radio 
Free Asia and reporting on gross human rights violations in China's 
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by jailing or otherwise harassing members 
of their families; and

    (6) championing a ``sovereign Internet'' model and exporting technology 
to enhance the ability of like-minded authoritarian regimes to suppress 
dissent online and monitor the activity of their people;

Whereas, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, recipients of the 2018 
        PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award--

    (1) were arrested in December 2017 for investigating the murder by the 
Burmese military of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Dinn in Rakhine 
State;

    (2) were sentenced in September 2018 to 7 years in prison on fraudulent 
charges of breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, and remain 
unjustly imprisoned; and

    (3) remain unjustly detained, after Burma's Supreme Court rejected 
their appeal on April 23, 2019;

Whereas freedom of the press has been under considerable pressure in recent 
        years throughout Southeast Asia, including in the Philippines, where the 
        Government has waged a campaign of judicial harassment against the news 
        website Rappler and its editor, Maria Ressa;
Whereas, Nouf Abdulaziz, Loujain Al-Hathloul, and Eman Al-Nafjan, recipients of 
        the 2019 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, who wrote in opposition to 
        Saudi Arabia's repressive Guardianship system, have been subjected to 
        imprisonment, solitary confinement, and torture by the Government of the 
        Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since May 2018 in an apparent effort to suppress 
        dissent and silence the voices of women;
Whereas, Washington Post journalist and United States resident Jamal Khashoggi 
        was murdered by a team of Saudi operatives while visiting the Saudi 
        Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey;
Whereas 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 journalist Mimi Mefo Takambou was jailed for 4 days in Cameroon in 
        November 2018 on charges of spreading false news while investigating the 
        death of an American missionary, where 4 out of the 7 total journalists 
        imprisoned in Cameroon were jailed for spreading false news, which is a 
        rising trend in Cameroon and elsewhere around the world;
Whereas according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 26 
        journalists were killed in Honduras since 2007, making it one of the 
        most deadly countries for journalists in the Americas, and where 
        journalist Leonardo Gabriel Hernandez was murdered in March 2019 after 
        receiving threats related to his work;
Whereas in Nicaragua, Miguel Mora and Lucia Pineda Ubau, the directors of the 
        country's only 24-hour cable news network, have been jailed since 
        December 2018 on charges of fomenting hate, spreading fake news, and 
        terrorism, and prominent journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro has fled 
        the country as President Daniel Ortega cracks down on free expression in 
        a bid to silence dissent and end the protests against him;
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) investigative journalist Carlos Dominguez Ramirez, who wrote 
frequently on local politics and corruption, was brutally murdered in front 
of family members on January 13, 2018, in Nuevo Laredo, and a politician he 
was investigating was subsequently arrested in connection with this heinous 
act; and

    (3) Rafael Murua Manriquez was abducted and murdered in January 2019 
after reporting threats from an official in the municipal government for 
critical reporting;

Whereas Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova were 
        murdered in February 2018, allegedly in retaliation for his 
        investigative reporting of tax fraud in connection to a businessman with 
        close ties to Slovakia's ruling party, where the perpetrator awaits 
        trial, just 4 months after the murder of another European journalist, 
        Malta's Daphne Caruana Galizia, for her reporting on corruption;
Whereas the world's growing cadre of ethical and hard-hitting investigative 
        journalists, including those contributing to the Organized Crime and 
        Corruption Reporting Project--

    (1) adhere to the highest professional standards;

    (2) uncover abuses and corruption being committed in their own 
countries; and

    (3) deserve the international community's support and praise for taking 
on the risky job of fostering accountability and transparency in their 
respective countries;

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 Television Marti, 
        and the Middle East Broadcast 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, activism in civil 
society, and socioeconomic development; and

    (2) enhances public accountability, transparency, and participation in 
civil society and democratic governance: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) expresses concern about threats to freedom of the press 
        and free expression around the world on the occasion of World 
        Press Freedom Day;
            (2) commends journalists and media workers around the 
        world, despite threats to their safety, for their essential 
        role in--
                    (A) promoting government accountability;
                    (B) defending democratic activity; and
                    (C) strengthening civil society;
            (3) pays tribute to journalists who have lost their lives 
        carrying out their work;
            (4) calls on governments abroad to implement United Nations 
        General Assembly Resolution 163 (2013) 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--
                    (A) to preserve and build upon the leadership of 
                the United States on issues relating to freedom of the 
                press, on the basis of the protections afforded the 
                American people under the First Amendment to the 
                Constitution of the United States;
                    (B) to improve the rapid identification, 
                publication, and response by the United States 
                Government to threats against freedom of the press 
                around the world;
                    (C) to urge foreign governments to transparently 
                investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of 
                attacks against journalists; and
                    (D) 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.
                                 <all>