🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the same as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.