🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a 2021 report had ordered 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 determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups 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 choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.