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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump 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 contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late journalist was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe 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 most lethal year on file for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message there is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.