State Dept. calls for journalist safety as Trump lashes out

WASHINGTON – The State Department said Friday that it will continue to seek a full investigation into the slaying of U.S.-based Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi as it marked International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

Commemorating the day is “particularly important” due to the Khashoggi case, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Nauert noted in a statement the State Department’s revocation of visas for some of the Saudi officials implicated in the Oct. 2 killing of the writer, who was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. while writing columns critical of his government for the Washington Post.

The State Department is exploring additional measures against anyone determined to be responsible for his death inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey, she said, linking the case to incidents in which journalists have been killed in Somalia, Syria and South Sudan or imprisoned as in Iran, Turkey and China.

The statement came the same day President Donald Trump lashed out at what he calls the “fake news media” who criticize him in the U.S.

He told reporters at the White House on Friday that some journalists are “creating violence” through their work.

He said that if the media were to “write accurately and write fairly you would have a lot less violence in the country.”