Leading journalists from around the world pay tribute to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist who was murdered by Saudi state agents at the country’s consulate in Istanbul this month, by reading portions of his final Washington Post column in a video released today by Amnesty International.
Jake Tapper of CNN, Nick Kristof of the New York Times, Indian journalist Barkha Dutt, Mehdi Hasan of Al-Jazeera English, Naomi Klein of The Intercept, Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post, Egyptian journalist Kareem Shaheen, Lebanese-Australian author and journalist Rania Abouzeid, Hamid Mir of Pakistan’s Geo News and Lebanese editor Rami Khouri all feature in the video.
Introduced by Karen Attiah, the Global Opinions Editor at the Washington Post, who worked with Khashoggi, the journalists read out from the column that was sent to the newspaper by his assistant the day after he disappeared and published after news of his murder was confirmed.
Entitled “What the Arab world needs most is free expression”, Khashoggi recalls how “the Arab world was ripe with hope during the spring of 2011. Journalists, academics and the generation population were brimming with expectations of a bright and free Arab society within their respective countries.”
Those expectations, Khashoggi laments, “were quickly shattered”. In their place followed a pattern of repression: journalists and other human rights defenders jailed, media outlets shutdown, censorship ruthlessly enforced.
“Today, we pay tribute to Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was killed for the words he wrote. We will continue his fight for freedom of expression and human rights in Saudi Arabia and beyond. And we will continue to campaign for truth and accountability for his horrific murder, by those who planned, ordered and executed it,” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International
“An independent investigation is urgently needed to reveal the full truth about what happened to Jamal”
Background:
Amnesty International has launched a campaign, calling on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to set up an independent investigation into Jamal’s Khashoggi’s death.
To watch the video, click here: https://youtu.be/uUq9OOI5wlU