🔗 Share this article

“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

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 crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal 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 accountable for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the identical as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.