[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 357 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 357
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 2, 2023
Mr. Schiff (for himself, Ms. Salazar, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr.
Cohen, Ms. Norton, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Watson Coleman)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
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'' to--
(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'',
which signifies the essential role of press freedom, independent,
pluralistic, and diverse media, and freedom of expression in enabling
the enjoyment and protection of all other human rights, and which will
highlight the essential role of the media and journalists in verifying
and disseminating facts, giving voice to the voiceless, creating spaces
for ideas to be debated, and rendering complex matters intelligible for
the public at large;
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 note), signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010,
expanded the examination of the freedom of the press around the world in
the Department of State's annual country reports on human rights
practices;
Whereas Freedom House's publication ``Freedom in the World 2023'' noted that
global freedom has declined for 17 consecutive years, and over the past
year, media freedom came under pressure in at least 157 countries and
territories assessed in the report;
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'' report, people
in 53 countries faced arrest or imprisonment for expressing themselves
online, including--
(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'' rather than in
conflict zones;
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, Turkiye (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'' policy in cities
throughout the country, in the largest protests to convulse China since the
prodemocracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989; and
(6) suppressing dissent through a ``sovereign Internet'' model and
exporting technology to enhance the ability 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 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--
G (A) the arrest in March 2023 of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street
Journal reporter and United States citizen, on baseless, politically
motivated 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 ``wrongfully detained''
by Russia;
G (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;
G (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;
G (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
G (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) relying on restrictive legislation, including a repressive
``foreign agents'' law, as justification to harass, fine, and freeze the
assets of media organizations, including 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 authorities citing the country's foreign agents law, and was stripped
of its print and online media licenses in September 2022;
(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'' in January 2023 and de facto banned by Russian
authorities;
Whereas, since the start of Russia's full-scale offensive against Ukraine,
Reporters Without Borders has documented 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 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'', and any individual charged
with creating or participating 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 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'' 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 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'' and ``incitement to
terrorism''; and
(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 Liberte, 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'' after having already 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
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'' after the February 2021 military
coup, as--
(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'' and
other topics, and she still faces the threat of imprisonment on three
remaining criminal charges, including 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 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, Turkiye, 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 Erdogan,
issued a ruling in March 2022 that closed the criminal trial of the
perpetrators in Turkiye 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 Roman, founder of the La Realidad newspaper and a columnist
for the Vertice 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 Martinez 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 Lopez 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 Television Marti,
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
Resolved, 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.
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