Time honors ‘guardian’ journalists as Person of the Year

Time magazine on Tuesday designated jailed and murdered journalists around the world as its 2018 Person of the Year. The magazine called the group “guardians” in the “war on truth” and selected four journalists to represent them: slain Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi; arrested Filipina reporter Maria Ressa; Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been detained in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for nearly a year; and the staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., where five people were shot and killed at the newspaper’s 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,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay.

Time has selected individuals or groups since 1927 to appear on its cover for the end-of-the-year issue. Khashoggi is the first person to be chosen posthumously.