🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.