US President Donald Trump. PHOTO | SCOTT OLSON | AFP
Summary
- Zeid voiced particular alarm over Trump's verbal assaults on CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post.
- UN human rights chief says Trump's assault on the media has emboldened other countries to crack down on press freedoms.
- He expressed specific concern over Trump's speech in Arizona earlier this month in which journalists were condemned by the US leader as "dishonest people" who "don't like our country".
The UN human rights chief said Wednesday that President Donald
Trump's relentless attacks on the media could trigger violence against
journalists, suggesting the US leader would be responsible.
In
a broad condemnation of Trump's conduct in office, Zeid Ra'ad Al
Hussein said he viewed the US presidency as the driver of "the bus of
humanity", accusing Trump of "reckless driving".
Zeid,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, also blasted
Trump's decision to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was
convicted of criminal contempt last month for illegally profiling
Hispanic immigrants.
On the media, Zeid voiced particular alarm over Trump's verbal assaults on CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post.
"To
call these news organisations 'fake' does tremendous damage and to
refer to individual journalists in this way, I have to ask the question,
is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists?
"And
let's assume a journalist is harmed from one of these organisations,
does the president not bear responsibility for this, for having fanned
this?" Zeid told reporters in Geneva.
"I believe it
could amount to incitement," he added, saying Trump had set in motion a
cycle that includes "incitement, fear, self-censorship and violence."
According to the rights chief, Trump's assault on the media has emboldened other countries to crack down on press freedoms.
"The demonisation of the press is poisonous because it has consequences elsewhere," Zeid said.
He
expressed specific concern over Trump's speech in Arizona earlier this
month in which journalists were condemned by the US leader as "dishonest
people" who "don't like our country".
Supports 'racial profiling'?
Turning
to the pardon for Arpaio, a hugely controversial figure intially
targeted for prosecution by former president Barack Obama's justice
department, Zeid said he was deeply disturbed by Trump's decision.
"I
had to ask myself the question what does this mean? Does the president
support racial profiling of Latinos in particular? Does he support abuse
of prisoners?
"Arpaio at one stage referred to the
open air prison that he set up as a 'concentration camp'", Zeid said,
asking "does the president support this?"
Arpaio, who
was known to make detainees wear pink underwear to humiliate them,
housed prisoners in tent camps surrounded by barbed wire, in the
scorching Arizona desert.
The former sheriff once likened the encampment to a concentration camp, although he later backed away from that remark.
Dangerous
Reacting
publicly for the first time to the recent unrest in Charlottesville,
Virginia, Zeid denounced the racist and anti-semitic actions of neo-Nazi
and white supremacists demonstrators as "an abomination" and "a
nightmare."
Zeid, who has not minced his words in
previous criticism of Trump, indicated that the world was is in a
perilous state with the New York billionaire in a position of global
leadership.
"I almost feel that the president is
driving the bus of humanity and we are careening down a mountain pass
and, in taking these measures, at least from a human rights perspective
it seems to be reckless driving," he told reporters.
"You asked me in November if I thought he was dangerous," Zeid continued.
"Today the only person who can confirm that is the president himself by dint of his own actions."
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