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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation 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 imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences 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 Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. 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 identical as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.