Watch: Khashoggi's final column read out by leading journalists

Jake Tapper, Nick Kristof, Naomi Klein, Barkha Dutt, Mehdi Hasan, Hamid Mir and others read from Jamal Khashoggi's last Washington Post column in a video released by Amnesty on Monday.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

29 October, 2018

Mehdi Hasan of Al-Jazeera English was featured in the video [Amnesty International]

Top international journalists payed tribute to slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by reciting parts of his final column in a video released by Amnesty International on Monday.

The journalists read out from the column that was sent to the Washington Post by Khashoggi's assistant a day after he disappeared and was published by the newspaper following confirmation of his murder.

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 and Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post featured in the video.

Egyptian journalist Kareem Shaheen, Lebanese-Australian author and journalist Rania Abouzeid, Hamid Mir of Pakistan's Geo News and Lebanese editor Rami Khouri also took part in the recording.

The video opens with an introduction by Karen Attiah, the global opinions editor at the Washington Post who worked with Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, who had criticised Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

It soon transpired that he was violently murdered inside the consulate by Saudi state agents.

His final column, entitled "What the Arab world needs most is free expression," Khashoggi recalled how the region 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," he wrote.

These expectations were quickly shattered and replaced by a pattern of repression, he added.

This saw media outlets closed down, journalists and human rights activists imprisoned and censorship ruthlessly enforced.

"Today, we pay tribute to Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was killed for the words he wrote," said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of Amnesty International.

"We will continue his fight for freedom of expression and human rights in Saudi Arabia and beyond," Naidoo added.

"And we will continue to campaign for truth and accountability for his horrific murder, by those who planned, ordered and executed it."