Trump's Casual Remarks on Journalist's Murder Represents a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman 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 leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at home 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 murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: 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 escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

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

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.