🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” 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 sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

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 murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

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 tracking this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

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