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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough 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.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation 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 regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, the president 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, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my message for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.