This has been a deadly year for journalists. So far, 44 have been killed around the world as a result of their work, the latest being Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia has finally been forced to own up to some measure of responsibility for his death. Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir has said the killing of Khashoggi in the country’s Istanbul consulate was “an aberration” and “a mistake” but he insisted that the powerful Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman was not aware of the incident.
The earlier denials of the Saudi authorities about Khashoggi’s whereabouts were scarcely credible and neither is this attempt to distance members of the ruling royal family from the killing.
The Saudi authorities had already given multiple and conflicting accounts about Khashoggi’s death on October 2, first denying and later admitting it, amid a global outcry.
While the country’s rulers appear immune from domestic criticism and get away with mistreating their own citizens in Saudi Arabia, it must be made clear to them that state-sanctioned murder anywhere else will make it a pariah state.