Trump Hostility Toward Press Enables Crackdowns By Saudis, Others - US Senator Leahy

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) President Donald Trump attacks on the news media are providing an excuse for autocratic governments such as Saudi Arabia to silence the press by resorting to arbitrary arrests, torture and even murder, US Senator Patrick Leahy said in a press release.

"President Trump has demonized the press, calling it the 'enemy,'" Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said on Wednesday. "His attacks on the press are a threat to our democracy, and they have provided an excuse to the world's dictators - like the Saudi royal family - to crack down on the press."

The release cited the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 as an example of danger faced by journalists from despotic governments.

"Democracies cannot survive without a free press, which is why autocratic governments resort to arbitrary arrest, torture and murder to silence the press," Leahy said. "If Mr. Khashoggi was tortured and murdered by, or with the knowledge of the Saudi government, it will be long past time to treat the Saudi government as the criminal enterprise that it is."

Leahy also reiterated his opposition to continued US support for Saudi-led airstrikes on rebels in Yemen, which have been widely blamed as a Primary cause of well over 10,000 civilian deaths in the past three years.