“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the facts.
The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (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 signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.
For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.
Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”
This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender 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 be shut down.
He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.
All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).
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 documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder 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.
The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.
This week, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.
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