Jamal Khashoggi initially grew in his career by interviewing a young Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and then transforming into one of the top journalists in his home country, Saudi Arabia.

While living in Saudi Arabia he was at one point an advisor to senior officials in the Saudi government and worked for top news outlets in the country. He was long seen as close to the ruling elite there.

Over the past year, Khashoggi had a falling out with the government over Prince Mohammed’s controversial tactics as he has worked to consolidate his power. This included many incidents where he would make arrests to powerful business executives and members of the royal family.

The Saudi royal family also barred Khashoggi from writing after he was critical of US President Donald Trump. This drove Khashoggi to leave Saudi Arabia for the US in the summer of 2017.

The Saudi Arabian government officially acknowledged his death on October 19; several sources say he was killed in early October. They have made conflicting accounts about the case over the nearly three weeks that Khashoggi’s disappearance remained a mystery.

“Mr.Khashoggi being killed is important because it’s a journalist being snuffed out,” Current Events teacher George French said. “This is because he was reporting what he sees. In this day and age, we need journalists to tell us what they see. We don’t need a powerful government just silencing the truth.”

Mr. French’s class discusses current events almost every day, often times news affiliated with the First Amendment.

“We cover the First Amendment because students need to understand them,” French said. “There is a reason why is it important and knowing the appropriate ways to using your voice.”

Delving on the fact that educating the population is one of the solutions to solving the many issues in our country, according to Mr.French.

“Turkey has reached a politically unsafe spot,” junior Ivan Profitt said. “They’ve been changing their story several times. Initially, Turkey said they have a video recording and have released it to a US informant. The unfortunate thing is that we can not know if this is even certain.”