🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late journalist was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, 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 redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

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 recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement there is the same as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.