Khashoggi, Ressa among ‘guardians of truth’ picked as TIME person of the year
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2018 15:31:42 +0000
Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi, who was killed in October, was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year along with veteran journalist Maria Ressa, founder of local news outfit Rappler, and other other journalists and paper dubbed as “guardians on the war on truth.”
Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal made the announcement on Tuesday night on American news channel NBC’s “Today” show.
The group was comprised of four journalists and a United States-based newspaper that the acclaimed magazine deemed as “guardians of truth” and representatives of a broader fight by countless others around the world.
Ressa, 55, who faces a stream of government lawsuits, was chosen by Time for her efforts and bravery despite government shakedowns which stemmed from her news site’s chronicling of and criticisms on President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
Time quoted Ressa saying that the world’s leaders, in some ways, have become influenced by US President Donald Trump, whose attacks on the press have set a “troubling tone” worldwide.
“I think the biggest problem that we face right now is that the beacon of democracy, the one that stood up for both human rights and press freedom—the United States—now is very confused… What are the values of the United States?” said Ressa.
Other Time Persons of the year were slain Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, incarcerated Thomson Reuters journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone; and Capital Gazette of Annapolis of Maryland where five people were shot dead at the paper’s offices in June this year.
Khashoggi was the first posthumous inductee to be featured as Time’s Person of the Year, whose murder was the most visible representative of this harrowing year for truth, the magazine said.
Wa and Kyaw were chosen for their exposé on the mass execution of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which led to their imprisonment in the country for seven years.
The pair remain separated from their children and wives, whose photographs for the cover story were taken, holding photos of their husbands.
The magazine also chose the Capital Gazette, which had undergone a dreadful tragedy this year, for strengthening the “bonds of trust and community that for national news outlets have been eroded on strikingly partisan lines.”
Time magazine recognizes the person or group of people who most influenced the news and the world “for better or for worse” during the past year. NEIL JAYSON N. SERVALLOS WITH AFP
The post Khashoggi, Ressa among ‘guardians of truth’ picked as TIME person of the year appeared first on The Manila Times Online.