; (3) shuttering and blocking investigative outlet Kloop, known for its reporting on high-level government corruption; (4) enacting the so-called Foreign representatives legislation that will establish extensive state control over externally funded press freedom groups and nongovernmental organizations that run prominent news sites; and (5) raiding independent news agency 24.kg on fabricated charges; Whereas, in Algeria, press freedom continued to deteriorate at an alarming pace in 2023, with 3 journalists in jail as of December 2023, according to CPJ, 2 of whom are the country’s most prominent journalists, including— (1) Mustapha Bendjama, editor-in-chief and director of local independent news website Le Provincial, who was arrested on February 8, 2023, on foreign funding charges and is currently serving a 6-month prison sentence for committing an illegal immigration crime ; and (2) Ihsane El Kadi, editor-in-chief of local independent news website Maghreb Emergent and Radio M, who was arrested in December 2022, and is serving a 7-year prison sentence on charges of receiving foreign funding for the news outlet he manages; Whereas, in Tunisia, press freedom has gravely deteriorated following President Kais Saied’s dismissal of the prime minister on July 25, 2021, and his concomitant suspension of Parliament, in addition to his Government’s imprisonment of journalists in 2023, according to CPJ, which evince a national context in which the Government has broadly suppressed press freedom in the country, including— (1) raiding multiple local and foreign media outlets and news organizations, and security officers, in several cases, confiscating the organizations’ broadcasting equipment and ordering their offices to close, notably the office of Al Jazeera; and (2) approving a new constitution that is devoid of necessary protections for journalists to pursue their work without fear of censorship and repression