Reporter columnist interviewed by Iranian TV

Reporter Columnist Karl Grossman — a professor of journalism for 40 years at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury — was interviewed by Iran’s international TV network, PressTV, on Sunday, October 28 about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mr. Grossman said the explanations that have been coming out of Saudi Arabia about what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi who wrote a column for The Washington Post, after he entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey, have brought “Pinocchio to a international level.”

Citing the 2018 report of Reporters Without Borders — the world’s largest NGO specializing in the defense of media freedom as a “basic human right” — Mr. Grossman said the regard for a free press held by the Saudi government is among the lowest in the world, rated 169 among 180 countries.

He added that Iran “is not much better,” with a 164 rating.

And, Mr. Grossman noted, the press freedom rating in the United States has been lowered by Reporters Without Borders to a 45 mark because of President Trump’s verbal attacks on journalists, according to the organization, including describing them as the “enemy of the people.”