Recognizing Widening Threats to Freedoms of the Press and Expression Around the World

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 345, a resolution to recognize the central importance of press freedom in a democratic society and calling attention to threats to press freedom around the globe.

I am proud to sponsor this bipartisan legislation, which I introduced with my colleague, Congressman Steve Chabot, with whom I co-chair the Press Freedom Caucus. I thank, as well, Mr. Engel and Ranking Member McCaul for moving forward this resolution.

Every day, journalists around the world bring forward vital information and stories, sometimes from behind the curtain of the world's most repressive regimes and amid war zones. Journalists expose corruption, malfeasance, and abuse that the wealthy and powerful may seek to conceal. For that, they face harassment, threats, persecution, assaults, and even death.

The purpose of this resolution today is to call attention to those threats and to make clear that Congress supports press freedoms here and around the world.

Recent years have been some of the most dangerous and deadly in memory for journalists. As we confront a rising tide of authoritarianism around the world, threats to press freedom are proliferating in many countries from repressive governments. Elsewhere, inadequate security and a lack of accountability have made journalists vulnerable to criminal or terrorist actors.

The resolution before the House today lists just a small sample of the cases in which journalists around the world have been killed or imprisoned for their work. I would like to speak to just a few of these cases and those that have occurred in the short months since the resolution's introduction.

Among them, of course, is the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi human rights advocate, U.S. resident, and Washington Post columnist who last year was brutally murdered and dismembered at the orders of the highest reaches of the Saudi Government.

Jamal's murder has been a rallying cry of sorts, but it stands alone in the worldwide attention it has received. All the same, it is tragically far from unique.

Fewer are aware of the cases involving Loujain Al-Hathloul, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Eman Al-Nafjan, three Saudi women who wrote critically of the kingdom's treatment of women and who have been imprisoned for more than a year; or of the acute threat to journalists in the Philippines where the regime of Rodrigo Duterte has attacked independent media with a campaign of judicial harassment and investigation, including the online media outlet Rappler lead and its editor, Maria Ressa; or in China, where authorities target independent and foreign media for harassment and detention, including the labor reporter Wei Zhili, who was arrested in March. Authorities also block American-based journalists and others who have sought to report on human rights violations and mass detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang province.

Turkey has become the leading jailer of journalists under the rule of President Erdogan, where, just last month, Turkish authorities charged two Bloomberg journalists who reported on the economic crisis in Turkey with undermining the Turkish economy and sought to imprison them.

In Iran, economics reporter Marzieh Amiri was arrested covering May Day demonstrations and has been held since, with little information about her well-being or the status of the charges against her.

In Mexico, reporters can pay with their lives for reporting on the crimes of drug cartels or corrupt local officials, including investigative journalists like Carlos Rodriguez, who was murdered in front of his family, or, more recently, Norma Sarabia, who was murdered in her home in Tabasco state and whose killers remain at large.

Of course, many Americans are all too well aware of the case of Austin Tice, an American working as an independent journalist in Syria who was kidnapped by forces aligned with the Syrian regime in 2012 and today is believed to still remain a hostage nearly 7 years later. We continue to do all we can to obtain information about his whereabouts and to secure his safe return.

Mr. Speaker, today, by passing this legislation, the House can send a message to journalists who face persecution for their work that we stand with them and value their contributions. For those who seek to intimidate and silence them, we send the message that we are watching.

The voice of people seeking justice cannot be silenced forever. We will stand strongly with all those around the world fighting for accountability and truth.

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I thank Chairman Schiff and Congressman Chabot for their bipartisan work on this issue. The United States must continue to provide a strong voice for a free press and independent media across the globe emphasizing fairness. Supporting a free press must remain an essential part of America's foreign policy, and I urge all Members to support this resolution.

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