The 2018 list also includes Filipina journalist Maria Ressa and imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
In a clear critique of the state of press freedom around the world, Time magazine has named “the Guardians” — a group of killed, imprisoned, or targeted journalists — as its 2018 Person of the Year.
According to Time, the Person of the Year “recogniz[es] the person or group of people who most influenced the news and the world — for better or for worse — during the past year.”
This year, the publication chose slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the staff of the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Maryland.
“Like all human gifts, courage comes to us at varying levels and at varying moments. This year we are recognizing four journalists and one news organization who have paid a terrible price to seize the challenge of this moment,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay about the decision, listing off the names of those who had been selected. “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,” he added.
Time also provided a broader explanation of the reasons behind its decision, focusing on the risks to journalists both in the US and all over the globe — and, unsurprisingly, made mention of US President Donald Trump. The world “is led, in some ways, by a US president whose embrace of despots and attacks on the press has set a troubling tone,” Time’s Karl Vick wrote.
Trump, who was Time’s 2016 Person of the Year and complained about not getting the title in 2017, has not yet responded, though he did take a swipe at the “fake news” on Twitter on Tuesday.
Here’s a more in-depth look at Time’s “Guardians.”
Khashoggi, a Saudi national and dissident who had fled his country for the US because he feared arrest, was murdered at the hands of a covert team of Saudi officials on October 2 during a routine trip to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The journalist’s murder reverberated around the world partly because he was a prominent and well-respected columnist for the Washington Post, and partly because the horrific details of his murder indicated a shocking level of audacity and brutality on the part of the Saudi government.
The journalist had been outspoken about the crackdown on free speech and human rights in his country after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler (often referred to as MBS), ascended to power in 2017.
Multiple reports indicate that MBS, who had been heralded as a liberalizing force in the country and praised by Western leaders and media, authorized a team to go to Istanbul to murder the journalist inside the consulate and dismember his body.
