Time’s ‘Person of Year’ goes to journalists

NEW YORK: Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in October at his country’s Istanbul consulate, was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” yesterday, an honor he shared with other targeted journalists recognized as “guardians” of the truth. Among those named with Khashoggi were Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo currently imprisoned in Myanmar - and the workforce of the Capital Gazette in the US city of Annapolis, including five staff members killed in a June shooting.

“As we looked at the choices it became clear that the manipulation and abuse of truth is really the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said. “So we chose to highlight four individuals and one group who have taken great risks in pursuit of greater truth, starting with Jamal Khashoggi.”

Time, which has awarded the “Person of the Year” title annually since 1927, published four different magazine covers for this week’s edition, each one spotlighting different honorees. It is the first time someone has been chosen posthumously for the prestigious cover.

Explaining the decision to honor dissident journalist Khashoggi, who was a US resident and Washington Post columnist, Felsenthal said it was “very rare that a person’s influence grows so immensely in death”.

Fellow honorees Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, exposed the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men during a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state last year. They have been imprisoned for nearly a year, and were convicted under a state secrets act in September. A court will hear their appeal later this month.

Marie Ressa, meanwhile, is CEO of Rappler, a Philippine news site hit by a string of government efforts to shut it down over its critical tone of President Rodrigo Duterte. She faces a charge which she has dismissed as “manufactured” - that Rappler provided false information to tax authorities, and risks up to 10 years behind bars. The staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, also share this year’s title. Their newsroom was attacked by gunman Jarrod Rodman in June, leaving four journalists and a sales assistant dead.