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“Things happen.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, 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 killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation 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 honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump 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 “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued 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 language of his preference, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.