[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 688 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 688
Recognizing widening threats to freedom of the press and free
expression around the world, reaffirming the vital role that a free and
independent press plays in combating the growing threats of
authoritarianism, misinformation, and disinformation, and reaffirming
freedom of the press as a priority of the United States Government in
promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance in commemoration
of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2024.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 15, 2024
Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Schatz, and Mr.
Van Hollen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing widening threats to freedom of the press and free
expression around the world, reaffirming the vital role that a free and
independent press plays in combating the growing threats of
authoritarianism, misinformation, and disinformation, and reaffirming
freedom of the press as a priority of the United States Government in
promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance in commemoration
of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2024.
Whereas the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and various State
constitutions protect freedom of the press in the United States;
Whereas Thomas Jefferson, who championed the necessity of a free press for a
thriving democratic society, wisely declared, ``Our liberty depends on
the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being
lost.'';
Whereas Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted in Paris on 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 the third day
of May of each year to be ``World Press Freedom Day''--
(1) to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom;
(2) to evaluate press freedom 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 the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-166)
expanded the examination of the freedom of the press around the world in
the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices published by the
Department of State;
Whereas, on December 18, 2013, and December 18, 2019, the United Nations General
Assembly adopted Resolution 68/163 and Resolution 74/157, respectively,
on the safety of journalists and the problem of impunity by
unequivocally condemning 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 non-conflict situations;
Whereas the United States Government has used the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-328) to
place targeted visa and economic sanctions on individuals, including for
their roles in the targeted killings of journalists;
Whereas, in an effort to combat attacks against journalists, Secretary of State
Antony J. Blinken in February 2021, announced the Khashoggi Ban, a
policy allowing the Department of State to impose visa restrictions on
individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed
to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-
dissident activities, including activities that suppress, harass,
surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons
perceived to be dissidents for their work;
Whereas compiled data from Reporters Without Borders provides alarming
indications about growing divisions resulting from the spread of
disinformation with the potential to weaken democratic societies;
Whereas, as of December 14, 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders, a
total of 521 journalists were in prison and 84 journalists were missing;
Whereas Reporters Without Borders notes that punishments against women
journalists are increasing disproportionately, with the number of women
journalists in prison rising by 30 percent in 2022 and with most of the
longest prison sentences handed down against journalists in 2023 given
to women;
Whereas Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2024 report marked the 18th
consecutive year of decline in global freedom, with an estimated 38
percent of the global population living in countries deemed ``Not
Free'';
Whereas Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2023 report marked the 13th
consecutive year of decline in global internet freedom, with people in
55 of the 70 countries covered facing legal repercussions for expressing
themselves online and people in 41 countries facing physical assaults or
death for their online commentary;
Whereas infringement on freedom of expression, including media freedom, has been
one of the key drivers of declines in global freedom over the last 50
years, according to Freedom House, including attacks and prosecutions
against journalists, pressure on media outlets, repressive regulatory
and legal frameworks, internet shutdowns, efforts to undermine strong
encryption, and blocks on online sources of information;
Whereas journalists and media workers are being murdered, imprisoned, attacked,
and harassed around the world and the Committee to Protect Journalists
has reported that--
(1) at least 99 journalists and media workers were killed around the
world during 2023, and at least 27 journalists have been killed in 2024, as
of May 15th;
(2) approximately 320 journalists were imprisoned during 2023;
(3) between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2023, the vast majority of
murders of journalists occurred with impunity, with nearly 80 percent of
the perpetrators of 261 murders of journalists facing no punishment; and
(4) journalists and media outlets around the world have been targeted
by government actors with sophisticated spyware products that pose a severe
risk to their privacy and security and the security of their sources and
families;
Whereas, according to PEN America, more than 339 writers and public
intellectuals, including columnists and editorial journalists, were
imprisoned across 33 different countries during 2023;
Whereas the censorship, victimization, and killing of journalists around the
world, particularly in conflict zones, has obvious and profound
implications for the ability of the public, including the American
public, to be informed, including about conflicts with local, regional,
and global ramifications;
Whereas, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February
2022, Reporters Without Borders has documented attacks directly
targeting journalists, including--
(1) the killing of 11 Ukrainian and accredited international
journalists and media workers by Russian armed forces;
(2) the torture by electric shock, beatings, and mock executions of
journalists working for the international press;
(3) the targeted kidnappings of journalists and their families in
occupied regions of Ukraine to put pressure on their reporting;
(4) the deliberate attacks targeting media facilities; and
(5) the near universal censorship, imprisonment, or exile of Russia's
independent news media;
Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without
Borders, in the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, Ukrainian journalists and
bloggers have repeatedly been threatened, arbitrarily arrested, and
tortured for resisting Russian occupation, such as the detentions and
imprisonments of Vladyslav Yesypenko Iryna Danylovych, Amet Suleimanov,
Asan Akhmetov, Marlen Asanov, Nariman Celal, Oleksiy Bessarabov, Osman
Arifmemetov, Remzi Bekirov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev,
Server Mustafayev, Seyran Saliev, Timur Ibragimov, Vilen Temeryanov, and
Lutfiye Zudiyeva;
Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ukrainian
journalists Viktoria Roshchina, Iryna Levchenko, and Dmytro Khilyuk
remain in the custody of Russian forces after their full-scale invasion
of Ukraine in 2022;
Whereas journalists and media workers face heightened dangers in Russia, such as
harassment, repression, censorship, and imprisonment, with 30
journalists and 4 media workers imprisoned as of March 27, 2024,
according to Reporters Without Borders, including--
(1) Evan Gershkovich, a United States citizen and reporter with the
Wall Street Journal, who has been wrongfully detained on baseless espionage
charges since March 29, 2023, and faces up to 20 years in jail;
(2) Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for congressionally-
funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was arrested for violating
Russia's ``Foreign Agents'' law and has since been charged for violating
Article 207.3 of Russia's Criminal Code, which effectively criminalizes
reporting about Russia's war in Ukraine;
(3) 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;
(4) Sergey Mikhaylov, publisher of independent newspaper Listok, who
was arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian
military in April 2022;
(5) Mikhail Afanasyev, editor-in-chief of the online magazine Novy
Fokus, who was arrested and charged with allegedly spreading false
information about the Russian military in April 2022;
(6) Novaya Gazeta, a landmark independent newspaper founded in 1993,
which--
G (A) suspended operations in Russia in March 2022 after receiving
warnings from the authorities citing Russia's ``Foreign Agents'' law; and
G (B) was stripped of its print and online media licenses in
September 2022;
(7) Meduza, a leading independent bilingual news website based outside
of Russia, which--
G (A) was designated by Russian authorities in January 2023 as an
``undesirable organization'' under the 2015 Undesirable Organization Law;
and
G (B) was banned from operating in the Russian Federation;
(8) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an independent nonprofit media
outlet, which was designated by Russian authorities in February 2024 as an
``undesirable organization'' under the 2015 Undesirable Organization Law;
(9) RusNews, an independent news website with few remaining
correspondents in Russia, whose journalists--
G (A) Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to 6 years in prison for
allegedly spreading false information about the Russian military on
February 15, 2023, and is facing a second criminal charge for alleged
violation of prison rules;
G (B) Roman Ivanov was sentenced on March 6, 2024, to 7 years in
prison for allegedly disseminating false news on the war in Ukraine;
G (C) Igor Kuznetsov, who has been in detention since September
2021, was given a 3-year suspended sentence on alleged extremism charges on
March 20, 2024, and was given a 6-year prison term on April 5, 2024, for
allegedly inciting mass disturbances in group chats on Telegram;
Whereas, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Washington Post contributing columnist and the
winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for commentary--
(1) has been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022 for his criticism of
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; and
(2) received an unjust 25-year prison sentence in April 2023;
Whereas Russian authorities continue harassing and prosecuting journalists in
exile, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, including--
(1) exiled Russian journalists Ruslan Leviev and Michael Nacke, who
were each sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison in August 2023 for
allegedly distributing ``fake'' information about the Russian military;
(2) exiled Russian journalist Denis Kamalyagin, editor-in-chief of the
exiled Russian newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, who was charged in late 2023
with failing to comply with the foreign agent law and with discrediting the
Russian army;
(3) United States-based Russian-American journalist and writer Masha
Gessen, against whom Russia issued an arrest warrant in 2023 for allegedly
spreading ``fake'' information about the Russian army;
Whereas other Russian journalists living in exile have also been targets of
harassment, surveillance, and suspected poisoning, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists, including--
(1) exiled Russian journalists Elena Kostyuchenko and Irina Babloyan,
who reported in August 2023 that they may have been poisoned in Germany and
Georgia, respectively;
(2) Prague-based IStories' reporters Alesya Marokhovskaya and Irina
Dolinina, who received threats and fear they have been under surveillance;
(3) Galina Timchenko, the Latvia-based head of Meduza, whose phone was
infected by Pegasus, a form of zero-click spyware produced by the Israeli
company NSO Group, while she was in Germany in February 2023;
Whereas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of December 1,
2023, the Government of the People's Republic of China had detained at
least 44 journalists, and has unleashed an onslaught of attacks on press
freedom in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, including
through--
(1) state-sponsored censorship and disinformation campaigns limiting
access to any information that runs contrary to Chinese Communist Party
propaganda narratives, and censoring politically-sensitive keywords on
social media platforms;
(2) the passage and implementation of legislation that severely
curtails press freedom in Hong Kong, including the National Security Law of
June 2020, and Article 23 of the Basic Law of March 2024, both of which
pose an existential threat to the city's tradition of press freedom;
(3) harassment, intimidation, arrest, and imprisonment of journalists
in Hong Kong, including the arrest and subsequent conviction of journalist
and outspoken democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, and the closure of his once
widely popular Chinese-language newspaper, Apple Daily;
(4) arrests or other repressive actions against independent journalists
and others in mainland China who are attempting to share uncensored news or
opinion about current affairs, including--
G (A) Sophia Huang Xueqin, who has written about women's rights and
the protests in Hong Kong, who was detained arbitrarily beginning in
September 2021, who went on trial in September 2023 on charges of
``inciting subversion of state power'', and whose current status remains
unknown; and
G (B) citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who provided uncensored news
regarding the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan and who has been imprisoned since
May 2020 on politically-motivated charges of ``picking quarrels and
provoking trouble'';
(5) the detention of journalists critical of the Government of the
People's Republic of China, including Ruan Xiaohuan, who, after blogging
about programming and politics, was sentenced to a 7-year term of
imprisonment in early 2023, following 21 months of detention; and
(6) the continued detention of Uyghur journalists, who account for
nearly 50 percent of imprisoned journalists in the People's Republic of
China, including Ilham Tohti, founder of the news website Uighurbiz, who
was detained in 2014 and is serving a life sentence;
Whereas Belarus has witnessed sweeping attacks against the press since Alexander
Lukashenka's fraudulent election in August 2020, with journalists and
media workers harassed, assaulted, and imprisoned, with 28 journalists
imprisoned as of December 1, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, including--
(1) Katsiaryna Andreyeva, a correspondent with Poland-based independent
broadcaster Belsat TV, who, while serving a 2-year prison term for filming
a live broadcast of the violent dispersal of a protest against Alexander
Lukashenka in November 2020, 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 who is not receiving
appropriate medical care despite having a preexisting brain tumor that has
grown during her detention;
(3) Maryna Zolatava, chief editor of 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;
(5) Ihar Losik, another Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist who
was arrested in June 2020, and sentenced in December 2021 to 15 years in
jail on bogus charges of preparation of actions that violate public order,
who attempted suicide in March 2023, and whose wife Darya was sentenced in
January 2023 to 2 years in prison on a charge of facilitating extremist
activity;
(6) Alyaksandr Mantsevich, who was detained in March 2023, and is
serving a 4-year prison sentence after being convicted in November 2023 on
charges of discrediting Belarus;
(7) Dzianis Ivashyn, a freelance journalist who has been serving a
sentence of 13 years and 1 month since being convicted in September 2022,
on charges of treason and ``illegal collection and dissemination of
information about private life''; and
(8) Ihar Karnei, a former freelancer with Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, who was sentenced on March 22, 2024 to 3 years in jail for
participating in an extremist group;
Whereas Belarus has weaponized ``extremism'' laws against independent media
outlets, with around 25 media outlets labeled as extremist groups or
organizations as of March 2024, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, and has jailed journalists on allegations of creating or
participating in extremist groups or facilitating extremist activities;
Whereas Belarusian authorities continue to prosecute journalists in exile,
including exiled journalists Stsypan Putsila and Yan Rudzik, who had
covered protests during the 2020 presidential election and were
sentenced in absentia to 20 years and 19 years in jail