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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude 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 found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (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 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences 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 responsible for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the identical as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.