🔗 Share this article

“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough 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 plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

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

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

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 murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.