Supported by: Liam Kerr* *S5M-15067 Andy Wightman: The Expression Agenda Report 2017/2018 That the — Parliament welcomes the publication of The Expression Agenda Report 2017/2018 by the international human rights organisation, Article 19; understands that it documents a significant decline in global freedom of expression over the last three years and a continuous decline across the last decade; notes with increasing concern that, in the last year, 326 journalists, 97% of whom were reporting on their own areas, were imprisoned, and that a further 78 journalists and 312 human rights defenders have been killed, including what it believes have been the high-profile murders of Jamal Khashoggi, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Mohammed al-Absi, Miroslava Breach Velducea and Ján Cuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová; notes also what it considers have been the countless media workers around the world who have died while attempting to hold those in power to account; recognises what it sees as the risks that journalists, communicators and human rights defenders face on a daily basis, including harassment, intimidation and threats, which can be in the form of verbal, sexual, physical or online abuse; understands that there is a complex network of actors acting to supress freedom of expression ranging from governments, organised criminals, business interests and religious fundamentalists; rejects what it sees as the rise of so-called fake news “ ” by presidents Trump, al-Assad and Maduro, of the United States, Syria and Venezuela respectively, and the Myanmar state counsellor, Suu Kyi; believes that this is connected and interlinked to a decline in freedom of expression and with the proliferation of so- called strongman populism in politics; considers that this approach is used by states such as “ ” Russia, Turkey and Hungary to silence those who protest, disagree or express themselves in a way that contradicts the people in power, and supports the call by Article 19 to reverse this corrosive trend, and for all to work together to ensure that the meaningful democratic principle of freedom of expression is protected.