The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) has viewed with increasing alarm the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
His disappearance has prompted leading financial news organizations to withdraw in protest from covering the Future Investment Initiative, also known as the “Davos in the Desert” conference hosted by Saudi Arabia. We support these moves, undertaken in the interest of preserving press freedom and the rule of law.
We also acknowledge that many American leaders, including corporate CEOs have also declined to attend the Future Investment Initiative conference.
While these protests are important symbolic measures we also call for a thorough and independent investigation about what happened to Khashoggi.
We are concerned the United States government has offered conflicting views about what happened and what role it should have in investigating the disappearance of Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia and a prominent opinion writer on Middle East affairs.
All over the world, journalists are under attack by their governments. We recognize that it is impossible for SABEW to issue a statement every time a journalist is threatened, assaulted or killed. However, the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi already has sparked protests from some of the world’s most important financial news organizations. What is required now is a full and honest accounting of what happened – and for our government to unconditionally support a truth finding effort.
SABEW is the world’s largest organization dedicated to business and financial journalism. SABEW’s First Amendment Committee has been increasingly concerned about the arrests of journalists and attacks on the media by government officials and other authorities in both the U.S. and abroad.
For more information on SABEW’s First Amendment Initiative go to #SABEW1stAmendment.
For more information about SABEW, please contact Kathleen Graham, executive director, kgraham at sabew dot org.
