The journalist is believed to have been killed on orders of the Saudi government. Jamal Khashoggi wrote of the need for a free press and…
The journalist is believed to have been killed on orders of the Saudi government.
Jamal Khashoggi wrote of the need for a free press and of Arab governments’ attempts to stifle free speech in his final column, Business Insider is reporting.
Perhaps aptly, considering the circumstances of his disappearance and likely death (more on that in a few paragraphs), the Saudi journalist’s last column was about Arab governments’ concerted attempts at stifling free speech.
Must read and share: My Fiancé Jamal Khashoggi Was a Lonely Patriot. #khashoogi https://t.co/6E3O06Y4GY
— Jenius (@PersianCeltic) October 14,2018
The Saudi journalist writes that, across the Arab world, only one country – Tunisia – is considered by Freedom House, which ranks the freedom of the press across the world, country by country, to be free. The rest are considered either “partly free” or “not free.”
“As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives.”
Khashoggi also criticizes foreign governments’ collective response to Arab censorship, which often includes imprisoning journalists and even torturing and murdering them, with a collective expression of outrage and then a collective shrug.
“These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community.”
Khashoggi may have himself been a victim of the very apparatus that he says persecutes press freedom in the Arab world. The Saudi citizen, who had been living in the United States, is believed to have been murdered, possible tortured first, by agents acting on orders from the Saudi government.
Khashoggi was last seen going into the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. The Turkish government claims to have audio and video evidence that he was tortured and murdered by Saudi agents inside.
