In Congress, bipartisan condolences for Khashoggi fiancée and calls for action
For a moment, polarized politics took a back seat. Democratic and Republican congressional leaders gathered at an evening reception and lined up to offer condolences to Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who earlier that day shared gut-wrenching testimony before Congress.
The ritual of sympathy was a deeply human moment that acknowledged tragic personal loss as well as a grim crime--her would-be husband's dismemberment by bone saw inside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Istanbul--that has, so far, gone unpunished. It was also an implicit rebuke of the Trump administration's muted sympathy and lack of action in holding the journalist's killers to account. U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the Saudi government, ordered Khashoggi's murder. But the administration has dismissed that conclusion and taken no action.
"Support for press freedom should be an organizing principle of U.S. foreign policy. It's sad that it took the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to remind us what's at stake," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, who testified along with Cengiz at the May 16 afternoon hearing on the dangers of reporting on human held by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Cengiz began her oral testimony before the subcommittee on painfully personal terms. She recounted buying furniture, planning her wedding, and assembling a dowry. "I was happier to be alive than I had ever been in my life," she said, speaking through a Turkish translator. "The fact that it all got suddenly cut on October 2, I still cannot make human sense of it.... And I still cannot understand that the world has not done anything about this."
Several members of Congress addressed her personally as well. "I hope what you hear today does not sound like empty words. I feel like so many people have let you down and let Jamal down," said Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA). "I want to express what I feel our country has struggled to unequivocally express: my sincere sympathy for your loss and my abiding commitment to speak the truth of the circumstances surrounding his death, so others will not suffer a similar fate."
Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), the subcommittee's ranking Republican, praised Cengiz's written testimony as "very powerful" and "a love letter to your fiancé." He described sanctions imposed by Congress under the Global Magnitsky Act on individuals believed to have been involved in the murder that ban them from doing business and traveling to the United States. Smith also acknowledged concerns that there may never be U.S. prosecution of the perpetrators and the need for an unclassified report describing the findings of U.S. intelligence services. "We need to pursue this more aggressively," he said.
CPJ's Simon laid out what Khashoggi's case means for the cause of press freedom. The cruelty and brazenness of this government-orchestrated killing, and the inability of the U.S. government to apply pressure and ensure justice, "sends a terrible message to tyrants and dictators and enemies of press freedom all around the world, that they can engage in this behavior, that they can murder journalists, that they can censor the media, and that they will not face consequences," he said. "That is a terrible message, a demoralizing message, a message that I believe cannot be allowed to stand."
But it may have been Cengiz--a modestly dressed Ph.D. student, speaking in Turkish about her lost love and shattered future--who laid out the most-cutting description of the stakes in her late fiancé's case. "It wasn't just Jamal that was killed" in the Saudi embassy that day, she observed. "It was the values that the United States represents. Didn't they get murdered as well?"
CPJ takes on press freedom threat from charges against Assange under Espionage Act
Julian Assange was being investigated for alleged rape in Sweden and facing extradition from the U.K. when he jumped bail to take refuge in the London embassy of Ecuador, a country that, at the time, had one of the worst press freedom records in Latin America. From this haven, the founder of WikiLeaks published Democratic National Committee emails which, according to an indictment of 12 Russian officers by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, were hacked by Russian intelligence agents and leaked with the purpose of influencing the U.S. presidential election.
Assange's actions and behavior are troubling on several levels. Nevertheless, as CPJ has said on many occasions, if Assange were ever extradited, prosecuted, and jailed in the U.S. on charges of espionage, the impact would be devastating for press freedom and the rights of journalists in the country and around the world.
Our concerns grew more acute on May 23, when the U.S. Justice Department took a big step in that direction by announcing 17 new charges under the Espionage Act in its indictment of Assange. The charges are related to WikiLeaks' publication of classified State Department cables in 2010 and 2011, material that was also covered by The New York Times, The Guardian, and news organizations around the world. As CPJ said: "If the publication of classified information is deemed to be an act of espionage, then journalism itself is criminalized."
"The Trump administration has bullied reporters, denied press credentials, and covered up for foreign dictators who attack journalists. This indictment, however, may end up being the administration's greatest legal threat to reporters," North America Program Coordinator Alexandra Ellerbeck said. "It is a reckless assault on the First Amendment that crosses a line no previous administration has been willing to cross, and threatens to criminalize the most basic practices of reporting."
We have serious concerns about global repercussions. The U.S. government's extraterritorial prosecution of Assange, an Australian, opens the door for governments from Colombia to Pakistan to France to prosecute American journalists who publish their secret government information, Executive Director Joel Simon wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post.
"The gloves are off," Simon wrote. "In fact, the sweeping nature of the Assange indictment seems intended to inflict maximum damage on the media."