United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, gives a speech at the opening of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on February 27, 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland. (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)
GENEVA — The UN human rights chief has denounced US President Donald Trump’s “repeated attacks” on three major American news organizations, saying “demonization” of the press can endanger journalists.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein also made his first public comments decrying racist and anti-Semitic cries by far-right groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, calling the events on its streets “an abomination” and “a nightmare.”
He said he didn’t initially respond because there was already a “cacophony of noise” in the United States.
Zeid, who is a Jordanian prince, said Trump’s repeated criticism of US news outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN was “an incitement for others to attack journalists.”
“You don’t have to stretch the imagination to see then what could happen to journalists,” he said.
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US President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to board Air Force One, prior to departing from Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland, August 18, 2017. (AFP/SAUL LOEB)
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