Jamal Khashoggi, other ‘guardians’ named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’
Dec 11, 2018, 7:57 AM | Updated: 2:26 pm
A group of journalists and a U.S. newspaper who were called the “guardians” of the so-called war on truth were named as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” it was announced Tuesday.
The group was made up of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who has been arrested and Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been detained in Myanmar for nearly a year.
The newspaper was the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot and killed at its offices in June.
“They are representative of a broader fight by countless others around the world — as of Dec. 10, at least 52 journalists have been murdered in 2018 — who risk all to tell the story of our time,” editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay.
Time selected them “for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts that are central to civil discourse, for speaking up and speaking out.”
The Guardians—Jamal Khashoggi, the Capital Gazette, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo—are TIME's Person of the Year 2018 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/HvoEaW5oUi pic.twitter.com/9Mr0wBTmvj
— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2018
Khashoggi was killed two months ago when the Washington Post columnist, who had lived in the U.S., visited Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey for paperwork so he could get married. He had been critical of the Saudi regime.
Ressa is an award-winning Philippine journalist who, along with the online news service she heads, has been sued for tax evasion. Her website has been critical of the government of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, and she claims the charges are politically motivated.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned for nearly a year in Myanmar after investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims.
Four journalists and a sales assistant were killed by a gunman at the Capital Gazette newspaper in June.
Since 1927, Time has selected individuals or groups to appear on its covers for the end-of-the-year feature.
This was the first time someone named was no longer alive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
