; Whereas Hatice Duman, the longest imprisoned journalist in Turkey, who has been serving a life sentence on terrorism charges since April 9, 2003, told the Committee to Protect Journalists in November that she had little hope for freedom in her current retrial; Whereas, in Georgia, the free press is increasingly threatened, as evidenced by the conviction of former government minister and journalist Nika Gvaramia to a 42 month prison sentence on May 16, 2022, on charges widely denounced as politically motivated, and attempts to pass laws modeled after the Russian Federation’s infamous foreign agents law, and insufficient prosecution of frequent physical attacks on members of the press; Whereas, in Tajikistan, where the government continues its systematic repression of the free press in 2022 by sentencing 6 journalists to lengthy prison terms on spurious charges in secretive, closed-door trials held in detention centers amid allegations of torture and forced confessions, including— (1) Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, a 66-year-old ethnic Pamiri journalist and human rights defender, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison; and (2) journalists Daler Imomali, Abdullo Ghurbati, Zavqibek Saidamini, and Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda, who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 7 to 10 years on spurious charges of extremism; Whereas, in Kyrgyzstan, where the government has taken worrying steps to undermine the country’s relative press freedom since the start of 2022, including by— (1) blocking news websites under an arbitrary new false information law, including that of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; and (2) imposing spurious charges of illegal drug manufacture on investigative journalist Bolot Temirov and deporting him to the Russian Federation in retaliation for his reporting on corruption in the government’s procurement processes