🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – 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 rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (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 vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

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

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.