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“Things happen.” 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 plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning 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 ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), 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 White House press pool for declining to use language of his preference, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

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

This week, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my one for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.