🔗 Share this article

“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

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 cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question 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 convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally 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 accountable for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my one for the president: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.