“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.
The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated 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 consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.
For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed 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.
Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”
This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question 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), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.
He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at home and crucial free press abroad.
All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).
It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.
The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.
This week, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.
A software engineer and tech writer passionate about open-source projects and AI advancements.
