Uma Singh. Birendra Shah. Prakash Singh Thakuri. Maheshwar Pahari. These courageous Nepali journalists were killed, at different times, as they had dared to speak truth to power.

Following the formal end of the Maoist insurgency in 2006, journalists in Nepal are comparably safer. The last murder, of Uma Singh, happened in 2009. Yet Nepali journalists continue to face all kinds of intimidations, threats of violence, and even physical violence. There have been over 100 cases of infringement of press freedom in Nepal in 2018, way more than the 66 instances in 2017.

And it’s a dangerous world for journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in 2018 alone, 53 have been killed in their line of duty, in countries as diverse as Brazil, India, the US, Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan. One of them was the 59-year-old Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi.

To put it bluntly, Khashoggi had to die because the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman didn’t like him. Khashoggi had repeatedly written about the kingdom’s illiberal impulses, for instance, its sponsoring of the military intervention in Yemen that has killed at least 11,000 civilians. For his crimes Khashoggi was strangled inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and his body dismembered to hide evidence.

Khashoggi is APEX ICON 2018 because his murder is a constant reminder that we should not take freedoms for granted

The international community was horrified. Liberal democracies around the world condemned the killing and demanded international sanctions against the Saudi elite. Other governments, including Nepal’s, chose silence. Besides a perfunctory statement from the FNJ, and save for some op-ed pieces, criticism of this most horrendous killing of a journalist was largely missing in Nepal. Perhaps this was to be expected in a country that has seen a steady erosion of press freedom in recent times, so much so that government ministers are now calling the media “peddlers of fake news”.

But it would be dangerous to forget what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Free expression and speech have no boundaries. They are also indispensable for a functioning democracy. Jamal Khashoggi is APEX ICON 2018 because his brutal murder is a constant reminder that we dare not take our freedoms for granted. As a government amasses power, it also tends to be rather autocratic. It thus needs constant reminders of its limits. If daring journalists like Khashoggi can be so easily silenced, and seemingly with no consequences for his killers, it bodes ill for democratic freedoms in a world increasingly governed by majority-pandering populists.

His is an inspiring story of how one journalist fought a mighty state and in his untimely death ended up being the emblem of press freedom

 

Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi's Timeline

Jan 22 1958: Born in Medina, Saudi Arabia

1982: Graduated from Indiana State University in the US with a BBA.

1986: Began his journalistic career working for English-language Arab News and Okaz. He also wrote for influential London-based Arabic dailies Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and Al-Hayat.

Late 1980s to early 1990s: Khashoggi came to prominence for his coverage of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the rise of Osama Bin Laden. Khashoggi is credited as being one of the first Arab reporters to profile bin Laden.

1995: bin Laden’s family asked Khashoggi to interview Osama and get him to publicly denounce violence. However, bin Laden remained steadfast about his desire to fight the Americans, and Khashoggi was forced to give up.

1999-2003: Khashoggi became the deputy editor for the Saudi-run newspaper Arab News, and remained in that position for four years. His next position as the editor-in-chief of the Al-Watan paper barely lasted two months before he was dismissed from the post without explanation.

2003-2007: He served as media adviser to Prince Turki al Faisal, the veteran head of the Saudi general intelligence service.

2007-2010: Khashoggi was reinstated as the editor of Al-Watan in 2007, but resigned again in 2010, after a row over running another controversial opinion piece.

June 2017: He went into a self-imposed exile in the US. From there, he wrote a monthly column in the Washington Post in which he criticized the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Oct 2, 2018: Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents that would seal his marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He was allegedly killed and dismembered with a bone-saw on the same day by a team of Saudi agents on orders that came from the Crown Prince.

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Why Jamal Khashoggi is APEX ICON 2018

If those like him who hold the power to account can be so openly silenced, and with seemingly no damning consequence, democratic freedoms around the world will be under threat. Nepal will be no exception

Between Jan 1 and Dec 14 this year, 53 journalists were murdered worldwide, nearly double the number in 2017. Packed with worrisome stats like this, the annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent non-profit that promotes press freedom worldwide, makes for a grim reading.

“Journalists from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to the US were targeted for murder in 2018 in reprisal for their work, bringing the total of journalists killed on duty to its highest in three years,” the report says, even while “the number of journalists killed in conflict fell to its lowest level since 2011.”

One of those murdered this year was Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His early October assassination inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the subsequent dismemberment of his body, had sent shock waves around the world.

Khashoggi was a veteran journalist who in his long career had reported on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and interviewed Osama bin Laden. Before that he had served as an advisor to the Saudi government. When relations with the House of Saud soured in 2017, he went on a self-imposed exile in the United States. In this recent columns in the Washington Post Khashoggi had been rather critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman whom he faulted for, among other things, sponsoring the brutal war in Yemen.

Unaware of how badly he had riled the mercurial crown prince, Khashoggi had gone to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2 to get documents for his marriage with his Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz, a doctoral student at a university in Istanbul. “The consular official, who had informed him that the paperwork had come through, had told him to be at the Saudi consulate at 1 pm,” Cengiz would write in her opinion piece published in the New York Times on Oct 13. “On our way there, we made plans for the rest of the day. We were going to browse appliances for our new home and meet with our friends and family members over dinner.” (APEX attempted to contact Cenzig for this article, both through emails and over the phone. She could not be reached.)

“Khashoggi’s murder highlights the rise of authoritarian and populist leaders and their intolerance for diverse and critical opinion,” Gagan Thapa, Nepali Congress leader

The rough prince

Initially, Saudi officials denied any involvement in the murder. Later, they provided conflicting information. Only after an international outcry did the Saudi government confess to the involvement of some of its officials but the full account of what happened in the Saudi consulate is yet to emerge. Intelligence reports, including from the CIA, suggest the crown prince himself ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Such a brazen killing of a journalist—that too in a consulate on foreign soil—has predictably shocked the global media fraternity, including in Nepal.

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) condemned the killing and lodged a protest letter with the Saudi Embassy in Kathmandu, demanding immediate action against those involved. “We submitted a strong protest letter. But I also confess that we have not done enough,” said Ram Prasad Dahal, a secretary at the FNJ. “My observation is that our major media houses are not giving this important issue enough space. The FNJ could also have been more vocal.”

Media experts APEX contacted were of the opinion that the issues of freedom of speech and expression are universal, and all attempts to suppress them, anywhere in the world, should be condemned.  

“There are universal repercussions of this killing because it creates a psychological fear among journalists of other countries. It may also contribute to self-censorship as they fear criticizing powerful rulers fearing similar consequences,” said Tara Nath Dahal, a former FNJ chairman who now leads Freedom Forum. “Impunity on crimes against journalists is a major problem around the world. Therefore despite the intense international pressure there has been no proper investigation of the Khashoggi murder.” 

Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa has also been closely watching global reaction to Khashoggi’s murder. “His murder shows that free speech and expression are under threat globally.” Thapa believes the US, “as a champion of liberal democracy, should have taken a stronger stand.”

Chiranjibi Khanal, Head of Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Tribhuwan University, sees Khashoggi’s murder as a part of “a universal trend of suppressing press freedom.”

When populists prevail

In the reckoning of Gagan Thapa, Khashoggi’s murder also highlights the rise of authoritarian and populist leaders and their intolerance for diverse and critical opinion, including in Nepal.  

He faults the reaction of Nepal government on Khashoggi’s killing. “Leaders who claim to be nationalists tend not to speak on internal affairs of other countries. They in turn want other countries to keep mum on their internal issues. Freedom of speech and expression, however, is a global issue and all sovereign countries should uphold it,” Thapa said.

Many world leaders swiftly condemned the killing and demanded an immediate probe but there was no reaction from our government or from any of our political parties. After the end of the Maoist conflict in 2006, journalists in Nepal are comparably safer. During the insurgency, many journalists had been killed, both by the state and the Maoist party.

And yet, there is impunity on the crimes against journalists as those involved are seldom punished. According to official records, there were around 100 cases of press freedom violations in Nepal in 2018, a sharp rise from 2017 when 66 such incidents were registered.

Various national and international organizations have noted a high level of self-censorship in Nepal. Journalists hold back on critical reporting on powerful politicians and businessmen fearing reprisal.

There has also been a systematic effort to portray Nepali media in a negative light—from the government. A few weeks ago, Minister for Information and Technology Gokul Banskota accused Nepali media of peddling fake news. Co-chairman of ruling Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal recently accused Nepali media of being “handmaiden of capitalist forces”. Prime Minister KP Oli has chaffed at what he thinks as “constant negative portrayal” of his government. There are reports that more regulations are in the works to make the Nepali press “more disciplined.”

Khashoggi’s murder represents the extreme to which those in power can go to silence their critics. Again, as those we talked to suggested, freedom of speech should have no boundaries, real or artificial. This is why Khashoggi’s killing must be condemned in the strongest possible way and there is a need for concerted international pressure on Saudi Arabia to come clean.

Khashoggi is APEX ICON 2018 because if those like him who hold the power to account can be so openly silenced, and with seemingly no damning consequence, democratic freedoms around the world will be under threat. Nepal will be no exception. We therefore we need to endlessly champion his cause.