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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged 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 condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince 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

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked 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 point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language 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 atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.