Time magazine names Khashoggi, endangered journalists as Person of the Year
Time magazine on Tuesday announced Saudi-murdered Jamal Khashoggi and a group of journalists it called “The Guardians” as 2018 Person of the Year.
The persons honoured, according to the influential magazine are individuals “who have taken great risks in pursuing the truth.” They beat President Donald Trump, who was among the shortlisted nominees named Monday.
Apart from Khashoggi, Filipina journalist Maria Ressa and Reuters’ Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were also honoured.
The Capital Gazette, the Maryland media company that lost five staffers to a mass shooting in June, was also featured.
Time editor in chief Edward Felsenthal announced the 2018 Person of the Year on NBC’s “Today” show, noting that it was the first year the weekly newsmagazine chose someone who is no longer alive.
“This is the first time we’ve chosen someone no longer alive as Person of the Year, but it’s also very rare that a person’s influence grows so immensely in death,” Felsenthal tweeted.
Time’s annual Person of the Year feature profiles an individual or individuals who had the biggest effect ― for better or worse ― on news headlines over the previous 12 months.
Time announced its shortlist for this year’s nominees on Monday, which included President Donald Trump, “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford, March for Our Lives activists, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Last year, Time chose “The Silence Breakers” as its Person of the Year, referring to “the individuals who set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment.”
The cover image for the 2017 selection featured women who spoke out against sexual misconduct, from high-profile figures, such as Taylor Swift, to lesser-known survivors, such as former Uber engineer Susan Fowler and Mexican migrant farmworker Isabel Pascual.
K-pop band BTS won this year’s Time reader poll for Person of the Year, narrowly beating out Planet Earth. In third place were the Thai cave divers, whose heroic rescue mission to save a trapped youth soccer team and their coach captivated the world.
In November, Trump told reporters outside the White House that he felt he should be Time’s 2018 Person of the Year. He nabbed the title in 2016, soon after winning the presidency.
“I can’t imagine anybody else other than Trump,” the president said. “Can you imagine anybody other than Trump?”
*From a report by Huffpost.com
