U.S. enacts a travel ban on 76 Saudi individuals
In a significant move, the United States has announced a travel ban on 76 Saudi nationals, as part of a new global policy aimed at holding accountable those who threaten dissidents abroad. This policy is a direct response to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, whose murder shocked the world.
The new global policy, named after the slain journalist, will impose visa restrictions on those involved in extraterritorial attacks on journalists or activists. These restrictions block entry or transit visas to those responsible for such abusive acts beyond their national borders.
The policy seeks to uphold international human rights standards, especially freedom of expression and protection of civil society actors, while deterring state or non-state actors from exerting influence through transnational repression.
The scope of this policy applies to individuals who have directly engaged in or orchestrated extraterritorial attacks against journalists, human rights defenders, or activists. This includes physical attacks, intimidation, harassment, or coordinated campaigns to silence dissent or investigative reporting abroad.
Visa restrictions are imposed based on credible evidence of involvement in such attacks, as established through investigations by international bodies, governments, or respected NGOs monitoring press freedom and human rights violations.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, announced the travel ban on Friday afternoon (local time), following the publication of a U.S. intelligence report suggesting that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
While no single comprehensive public document from 2025 explicitly elaborates all details of this policy, reports indicate a trend where countries and coalitions are increasingly applying visa bans as a tool against perpetrators of extraterritorial abuses on journalists and civil society. These measures often accompany condemnations in international legal forums about abuses impacting media freedom and human rights defenders.
The U.S. flag is displayed in the photo accompanying this article, symbolising the nation's commitment to upholding the values of freedom of speech and human rights. This new policy is a step towards ensuring that those responsible for attacks on journalists and activists are held accountable, regardless of where these attacks occur.
- This new policy, known as the Khashoggi policy, aims to restrict visas for individuals involved in extraterritorial attacks against journalists, human rights defenders, or activists as part of the United States' politics and policy-and-legislation on war-and-conflicts and general-news.
- As the war-and-conflicts policy evolves, there is a growing trend in politics for countries and coalitions to impose travel bans on those responsible for extraterritorial abuses on journalists and civil society, as a means of addressing such violations in the realm of policy-and-legislation and general-news.
