; (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, 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 the protests during the 2020 Presidential election and were sentenced in absentia to 20 years and 19 years in jail, respectively, in May 2023; Whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran was the world’s leading jailer of journalists, including female journalists, in 2022, and whose Government subjected them to arbitrary summonses, arrests, travel bans, torture, inhumane treatment, and unsubstantiated and unjust sentences, and where, according to CPJ, at least 17 journalists and media workers remained behind bars as of December 1, 2023, including— (1) Niloofar Hamedi, correspondent of the daily newspaper Shargh, who was imprisoned in 2022 for trying to document the death of Mahsa Jina Amini on charges that could result in the death penalty; (2) Elahe Mohammadi, a journalist for the daily Ham Mihan, who was also imprisoned in 2022 for the same action and on the same charges