Khashoggi affair fallout from Trump’s anti-media rhetoric
Here’s the most astonishing thing about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist-in-exile and Washington Post columnist, who entered his country’s consulate in Istanbul a week ago and never came out.
Whoever gave the order to snatch him — likely the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — assumed there would be few repercussions for kidnapping or killing a renowned journalist.
This stunning assumption says much about the growing threats to independent journalism amid conspiratorial websites, populist hysteria and dictatorial crackdowns — and President Donald Trump constantly saying that critical journalists are the “enemy of the people.”
The Khashoggi affair grimly illustrates how the risk to journalists increases worldwide when America abdicates its role as global defender of a free press.
The details are still murky. Turkish officials believe Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate by a Saudi hit squad. He may also have been drugged and smuggled out (two Saudi diplomatic limos visited the consulate the same day as Khashoggi). Other critics have been abducted from abroad and jailed under MBS (the colloquial name for the crown prince).
How could this happen? Khashoggi initially supported MBS’ reform plans but became disillusioned when MBS began jailing intellectuals, businessmen, bloggers, writers and activists.
Khashoggi tried to be a constructive critic. Citing himself and other dissidents, he wrote: “We are not opposed to our Turkish claims that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was slain inside a Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey has put the Trump administration in a delicate spot with one of its closest Mideast allies.
government and care deeply about Saudi Arabia. Yet we are the enemy.” He begged MBS to use diplomacy to end the brutal Yemen war.
But why might a Saudi leader assume he could carry out such a brazen move without tarnishing the Saudi image? Perhaps because of his friendship with first son-inlaw Jared Kushner, or because Trump had praised him, or because Trump is cozy with other leaders hostile to journalists and is himself a fierce critic of mainstream media.
The U.S. once defended press freedoms. Trump’s relentless attack on U.S. news outlets that critique him, calling them “fake news” or “enemies of the people,” has a negative impact worldwide.
At least 21 journalists worldwide were jailed on “fake news” charges in 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; the term is now used by leaders the world over.
The late Sen. John McCain said: “These efforts are being closely watched by (repressive) foreign leaders who are using his words as cover.”
Maybe that includes the Saudi crown prince.
Trump has embraced authoritarian leaders who openly threaten journalists with murder, such as Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte, or who silently tolerate such murders, such as Vladimir Putin; 28 journalists have been killed in Russia under Putin, with three more recently murdered in Africa while investigating a Russian mercenary operation run by a pal of Putin’s.
Yet Trump defends Putin, insisting, “It has not been proven that he’s killed reporters.”
Three journalists were recently murdered in Malta, Slovakia and Bulgaria, in the first two cases while investigating corruption linked to high government officials.
Trump waited six days to say he was “concerned” about Khashoggi’s disappearance and for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to issue an anodyne statement.
So far U.S. journalists have been spared, apart from the five people killed at the Annapolis Capital Gazette newsroom. But the White House’s antipress rhetoric encourages the deranged, and death threats have been forthcoming, notably to the Boston Globe.
The Khashoggi affair is a warning.
When the United States abandons its role as defender of the free press, the risk grows to American journalists, and those in other countries. If Trump fails to press MBS for an accounting, he’ll add to the impression that the United States no longer cares when journalists are murdered. It could happen here.