Jamal Khashoggi did not deserve to die. 

Khashoggi is smiling in the headshot beside his one-line biography on The Washington Post’s website. His biography speaks about him in the present tense: “Khashoggi is,” not “Khashoggi was.”

The last column Khashoggi’s editor received for publication is about the Arab world’s need for a free press. In it, he writes that an independent press would give the people freedom from the government propaganda currently dominating the public psyche—give them the human right to think for themselves.

That column is Khashoggi’s final work. He died for his words. He was dismembered alive, presumably on the order of the Saudi Arabian government, for wanting to preserve freedom of the press, freedom of expression and freedom of speech. In the United States, we take these rights for granted, but Khashoggi and the rest of Saudi Arabia had to fight for them. Khashoggi fought until he unjustifiably paid with his life.

Jamal Khashoggi did not deserve to die. 

It is fitting that Khashoggi wrote for a publication that bears the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” under its name. The Post has always been a symbol of democracy. It made history by having the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, Katharine Graham, who proved women could lead equal to men. It was home to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the duo that brought down President Richard Nixon for undermining our democracy during the Watergate scandal. Khashoggi, an emblem of freedom in an oppressive regime, wrote for a paper that has always protected the freedom of American democracy.

But what killed Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia may one day reach U.S. shores. Hostility toward U.S. journalists is more dangerous than ever before. President Donald Trump’s mantra that the press is “the enemy of the people” has inflamed it even further.

If Trump continues down the road of the dangerous rhetoric that he’s been on, he could soon have blood on his hands. Within just a matter of two years, the U.S. Press Freedom Index has fallen from number 43 to number 45, citing that the president’s attacks on reporters both at home and abroad have dimmed the light on the press’ freedom that it is guaranteed in the First Amendment.

What Saudi Arabia and Trump have failed to understand is that the press keeps the world honest, no matter how hard the truth may be at times. A journalist’s job is essential in spreading this news nation wide, and without them, the world would be left in the dark.

No one should ever be killed for their craft, but Jamal Khashoggi had to lose his life in order to shine light on this issue.

When journalists die, so does democracy.