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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 past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

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

Societal Impact

The effect on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.