; Whereas, in Syria, Austin Tice, a United States journalist who was taken prisoner while reporting on Syria’s civil war more than 10 years ago in August 2012, remains wrongfully detained by the Assad regime; Whereas freedom of the press continues to be under assault throughout Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, where at least 22 journalists and bloggers are being held in jail, some with sentences of up to 15 years for their independent reporting, including female journalist Pham Doan Trang, a recipient of the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2022 and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2019; Whereas, in Burma, Reporters Without Borders asserts that press freedom has been set back 10 years in 10 days after the February 2021 military coup, as— (1) media workers were forced into hiding and confronted censorship, harassment, internet blocks, beatings, interrogations, threats, and injuries at the hands of the military; (2) multiple independent media outlets had to cease operations or close altogether or had their licenses revoked by the military; and (3) journalists were detained at alarming rates, with 75 journalists currently being detained according to Reporters Without Borders; Whereas, in the Philippines, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa, a United States citizen, continues to be targeted and judicially harassed by the Government’s aggressive campaign against independent media after her reporting on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and other topics, and she still faces the threat of imprisonment on three remaining criminal charges, including the cyber libel case that she was convicted of in June 2020, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals in July 2022 and is currently pending a judgement by the Supreme Court