and reaffirming the vital role that a free and independent press plays in combating the growing threat of authoritarianism, countering misinformation and disinformation, documenting human rights abuses, informing local and international audiences about public health crises, and furthering discourse and debate to advance healthy democracies, in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2022.
Title: S.Res. 609: A resolution recognizing widening threats to press freedom and free expression around the world…
Publish Date: May 3, 2022
Publisher: GovTrack.us
Excerpt:
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 609
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 3, 2022
Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Moran, Mr. Coons, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Van Hollen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
RESOLUTION
Recognizing widening threats to press freedom and free expression around the world, and reaffirming the vital role that a free and independent press plays in combating the growing threat of authoritarianism, countering misinformation and disinformation, documenting human rights abuses, informing local and international audiences about public health crises, and furthering discourse and debate to advance healthy democracies, in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2022.
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 battle for a free press continues to be fought in South and Southeast Asia, where—
(3) Vietnamese journalists Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan were each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison; and
(4) Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese journalist and writer, following a year in detention, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for anti-state propaganda in a judicial proceeding and imprisonment declared arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention;
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