The increase in killings this year after two years of decline, combined with the data on jailings, amounts to “a profound global crisis in press freedom,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.
The group blamed the crisis partly on what it called a “lack of international leadership on journalists’ rights and safety,” pointing to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi as a prime example.
Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States, was a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom, who has little or no tolerance for dissent.
The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that the crown prince directed the Saudi operatives who killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But the victim’s most ardent defender, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, is no supporter of a free press — his government has imprisoned more journalists than any other.
And while the United States historically has been a strong defender of press freedom, President Trump has not only disputed the C.I.A.’s conclusions blaming Prince Mohammed but has suggested that America’s strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia takes priority regardless.
“Essentially, Trump signaled that countries that do enough business with the United States are free to murder journalists without consequence,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
Press advocates have repeatedly criticized Mr. Trump for his denunciations of coverage he does not like as “fake news” and for his description of news organizations as the “enemy of the people.” A number of prominent news executives, including from The New York Times, have said that the president’s words put the physical safety of journalists at risk.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/world/middleeast/journalist-deaths-2018.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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