; Whereas the United States Government has used the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328 ) to place targeted visa and economic sanctions on individuals, including for their roles in the targeted killings of journalists; Whereas, in an effort to combat attacks against journalists, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in February 2021, announced the Khashoggi Ban, a new policy allowing the Department of State to impose visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including activities that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work; Whereas Reporters Without Borders, in their compiled data from 2022, provide alarming indications about growing divisions resulting from the spread of disinformation with the potential to weaken democratic societies; Whereas, according to Reporters Without Borders, a record total of 533 journalists were in prison as of December 1, 2022, and the annual number of women journalists in prison has recently risen by nearly 30 percent; Whereas Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2023 report marked the 17th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, with an estimated 39 percent of the global population living in countries deemed Not Free ; Whereas worsening media freedom has been one of the key drivers of declines in global freedom, including attacks and prosecutions against journalists, pressure on media outlets, repressive regulatory and legal frameworks, internet shutdowns, and blocks on online sources of information