Time Magazine on Tuesday named a group of journalists who were imprisoned or killed in the past year as its 2018 \u00ab\u00a0Person of the Year,\u00a0\u00bb while\u2026<\/b>
\nTime Magazine on Tuesday named a group of journalists who were imprisoned or killed in the past year as its 2018 \u00ab\u00a0Person of the Year,\u00a0\u00bb while President Trump was named the runner-up and special counsel Robert Mueller was the third choice.
The magazine gave the annual designation to \u00ab\u00a0The Guardians and the War on Truth,\u00a0\u00bb specifically highlighting the cases of murdered journalists Jamal Khashoggi and staff members of the Capital Gazette newspaper, as well as jailed journalists Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
\u201cLike all human gifts, courage comes to us at varying levels and at varying moments,\u00a0\u00bb Time Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay about the selection. \u00ab\u00a0This year we are recognizing four journalists and one news organization who have paid a terrible price to seize the challenge of this moment.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0They are representative of a broader fight by countless others around the world \u2014 as of Dec. 10, at least 52 journalists have been murdered in 2018 \u2014 who risk all to tell the story of our time,\u00a0\u00bb Felsenthal added.
Time’s annual \u00ab\u00a0Person of the Year\u00a0\u00bb pick is determined based on \u00ab\u00a0who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.\u00a0\u00bb
Trump previously earned the \u00ab\u00a0Person of the Year\u00a0\u00bb label in 2016.
Magazine editors on Tuesday said the president’s runner-up status reflected his impact on the world, as well as the reaction he spurs from others.
\u00ab\u00a0This year brought forth the consequences of Trump’s disruption,\u00a0\u00bb they wrote. \u00ab\u00a0The deficit soared. The stock market trembled. The voters revolted. Special counsel Robert Mueller circled closer. Trump has tested the system and exposed its weaknesses, but also revealed its strength.\u00a0\u00bb
Editors also wrote that Mueller engendered equally strong, but divergent reactions from individuals depending on their political leanings.
\u00ab\u00a0The public narrative of Mueller’s investigation this year has often described its central character more as myth than man,\u00a0\u00bb they wrote.
Time published four different covers for its annual \u00ab\u00a0Person of the Year\u00a0\u00bb issue, with each cover featuring either Khashoggi, the Capital Gazette staff, Ressa, or Wa Loen and Kyaw Soe Oo.
The announcement was made on NBC’s \u00a0\u00bb Today \u00a0\u00bb show
Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Turkish leadership and U. S. lawmakers have expressed confidence that Saudi leadership was involved in the killing, which prompted international outrage.
Trump has drawn criticism for his handling of Khashoggi’s death after he failed to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or issue harsher punishment toward the kingdom.
The Capital Gazette selection references the five staffers who were killed when a gunman opened fire in June at the newspaper’s Annapolis, Md., offices. Police said the alleged shooter, Jarrod Ramos, had a long-running dispute with the newspaper.
Critics accused Trump after the shooting of stoking hostility toward reporters by referring to them as \u00ab\u00a0fake news\u00a0\u00bb and to some outlets as \u00ab\u00a0enemies of the people.\u00a0\u00bb
The Time cover also recognized Maria Ressa, a journalist in the Philippines who was charged last month with five counts of tax fraud. The charges carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
Ressa, who has written critically of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s policies, said the charges were intended to \u201charass and intimidate\u00a0\u00bb her and her employer. Ressa posted bail in her case on Tuesday.
Time also highlighted the case of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who have been jailed in Myanmar for more a year. The two were sentenced in September to seven years in prison after a judge ruled that the men violated the law when they obtained confidential documents in their reporting on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.
Vice President Pence has called on Myanmar to release the journalists.
Time, which originally launched the award in 1927, has chosen controversial winners, including Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942 and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 during the American hostage crisis, for example.
The magazine has chosen groups more often in recent years, with \u00ab\u00a0The Whistleblowers\u00a0\u00bb winning in 2002, \u00ab\u00a0The American Soldier\u00a0\u00bb in 2003, \u00ab\u00a0The Good Samaritans\u00a0\u00bb winning in 2005, \u00ab\u00a0The Protester\u00a0\u00bb in 2011, \u00ab\u00a0Ebola Fighters\u00a0\u00bb in 2015, and \u00ab\u00a0The Silence Breakers\u00a0\u00bb in 2017 to celebrate the #MeToo movement. It had rarely chosen groups before this time.
Almost every U. S. president has won the award since its inception, with the only exceptions being Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Gerard Ford.
–Joe Concha contributed to this report, which was updated at 8:29 a.m.<\/p>\n