IV 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 democ- racy, and reaffirming freedom of the press as a priority of the United States Government in promoting democ- racy, human rights, and good governance on World Press Freedom Day. Whereas Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declara- tion of Human Rights, adopted at Paris, December 10, 1948, states, ‘‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opin- ion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 357 IH impart information and ideas through any media and re- gardless of frontiers.’’; Whereas Article 19 of the United Nations International Cov- enant on Civil and Political Rights adopted on December 16, 1966, states, ‘‘Everyone shall have the right to free- dom 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 pro- claimed 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 inde- pendence; 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 unequivo- cally condemns all attacks on, and violence against, jour- nalists and media workers, including torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, arbitrary de- tention, 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, plural- VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 357 IH istic, and diverse media, and freedom of expression in en- abling 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 intel- ligible 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 free- dom came under pressure in at least 157 countries and territories assessed in the report; Whereas Freedom House data show that freedom of expres- sion, 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 driv- ers 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 357 IH 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 re- gimes that control media and online platforms while wag- ing 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 increas- ingly pervasive digital surveillance, intimidation, and at- tacks; 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 vic- tims of transnational repression, tactics used by govern- ments 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 journal- ists 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, includ- ing— (1) online journalists targeted for their reporting; VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 357 IH (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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 357 IH 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- VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HRES 357 IH 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HRES 357 IH 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; VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:11 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR357.IH HR357 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HRES 357 IH (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 [Text truncated for display. 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