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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – 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 dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump 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 fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – 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 record for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.