By: Mushtaq Hurra
International print and electronic media was caught by storm during the first fortnight of October 2018 not because Viktoria Marinova of Bulgaria was raped and brutally killed, not because the cries of innocent Syrians and Palestinians had melted the hearts of international community but because a pro-American journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was allegedly killed in Saudi consulate on 2nd October 2018. World hasn’t still stopped, many channels and newspapers still publish columns and reports regarding the alleged murder. I think, the issue has been given too much hype. Who really was Jamal Khashoggi?
Jamal Khashoggi was a famous political analyst, journalist and editor. He is believed to be killed in Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, when he went missing on 2 October 2018. Though Saudi government has accepted his alleged murder in its Turkish consulate but it has denied any official hand in it.
Born in Madina, Saudi Arabia, in 1958, Jamal Khashoggi attained his basic education in his own land, and then moved to America for higher education where he completed his degree in business administration from Indiana University. After returning back to Saudi Arabia, he began his reporting career with a local newspaper and, interestingly, the first story he covered was Russia’s attack on Afghanistan. He earned good name in media circles. He interviewed Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden many times during the two decades of 80’s and 90’s.
He rose to the position of assistant editor of an English daily ‘Arab News ‘ in 1999. In 2003, he became the chief editor of ‘ Alwatan’ Newspaper. But he lost the post within a couple of months for publishing a story against Saudi establishment. He then moved to America where he became the media advisor of a former Saudi chief Prince Turki. In 2007, he resumed his services with ‘ Always ‘ but left it again for many disputes and issues. In 2012, he was selected to head ‘ Qayimul Arab ‘ News channel based in Bahrain but this stint also didn’t work for him.
In 2017, he again moved to America and began to write columns for ‘ Washington Post ‘. In his first column for this newspaper, he wrote that he had adopted self exile in order to evade arrest by Saudi regime. He accused the incumbent Saudi crown prince of harassing people who had different political ideologies. He further accused Saudi government for barring his column in the Arabic Newspaper ‘ Al-Hayaat’.
Jamal Khashoggi went missing on 2nd October 2018 when he had entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get the divorce paper of his fiancée. His fiancée said that he had advised her to contact President’s Erdogan’s advisor in case he didn’t return back.
Though his last column was published on 11th of September but the Newspaper’s editor left a place blank with the headline “Missing voice” on October the 5th to highlight his alleged murder. According to Turkey, he has been killed in the Saudi consulate.
Jamal Khashoggi’s alleged murder was widely covered by European media. Surprisingly, these media houses seem to be biased enough towards the carnages of Muslims at different places like Palestine, Syria, Burma etc…
Some Newspaper reports claim that Khashoggi was affiliated with the infamous intelligence agency of America, CIA, and had been allegedly working for it for almost twenty years. It is the same CIA which has painted its hands with the murder of thirteen lakh Afghanis, ten lakh Iraqis including six lakh innocent children and women. This agency has rendered more than twenty lakh Iraqis homeless. CIA and American stirring in Iraq has left it devastated. More than 50% of Iraqis are without a job and more than 40% are starving. CIA’s cruelty has hit Iraq in many ways. Besides tremendous damage to life and property, the country is suffering from brain drain because the intelligentsia of the country is migrating to safer places.
Fertile brains are leaving the country very rapidly and all this doesn’t matter for the media that has so passionately picked up the case of a missing journalist.
