; Whereas Belarusian authorities continue to prosecute journalists in exile, including exiled journalists Stsypan Putsila and Yan Rudzik, who had covered protests during the 2020 presidential election and were sentenced in absentia to 20 years and 19 years in jail, respectively, in May 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; Whereas, in 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran was the world's leading jailer of journalists, including female journalists, and the Government of Iran subjected these journalists to arbitrary summonses, arrests, travel bans, torture, inhumane treatment, and unsubstantiated and unjust sentences, and where, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 17 journalists and media workers remained behind bars as of December 1, 2023, including— (1) Niloofar Hamedi, a correspondent of the daily newspaper Shargh, who was imprisoned in 2022 for trying to document the death of Mahsa 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; (3) Iranian journalist Navid Seyed-Mohammadi, a Kurdish reporter for the state-run Islamic Republic Radio and Television broadcaster, who was arrested in May 2020 and is serving a 7-year prison sentence for espionage for hostile states ; (4) Kayvan Samimi, a 76-year-old veteran journalist, who was initially imprisoned in May 2019 and is serving a 6-year prison sentence on anti-state charges of spreading propaganda against the system and colluding against national security ; (5) sisters Hoda and Zahra Tohidi, who are freelance journalists, and were imprisoned in 2022 alongside Zahra’s husband, Alireza Khoshbakht, a fellow journalist, for documenting the nationwide protests after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini; and (6) Mohammad-Bagher Moradi, an exiled freelance journalist, who was extradited to Iran from Turkey, was immediately imprisoned in 2022 for his work, and is serving a 5-year prison sentence