Time magazine honours persecuted journalists as 'Person of the Year' in 2018

Time magazine honours persecuted journalists as 'Person of the Year' in 2018
By Amy Chung
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TIME honours journalists as their People of the Year. Maria Ressa from Rappler, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo of Reuters, the late Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post and the staff at the Capital Gazette. The journalists have faced imprisonment, harassment and death in their mission to tell the truth.

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News magazine Time has honoured murdered Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi and other persecuted journalists.

It named Khashoggi, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa from the Philippines, imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and the American newspaper staff of the Capital as its "Person of the Year" for 2018.

The magazine released four different covers with the recipients under the simple headline "The Guardians".

"This ought to be a time when democracy leaps forward, an informed citizenry being essential to self-government. Instead, it’s in retreat," the magazine's Karl Vick, wrote.

Khashoggi's death in October made headlines as grim details were released on how he was suffocated and dismembered inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey as his fiancee waited outside for him, not knowing what was happening inside.

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The 59-year-old worked as a former advisor for the government but soon fell out of favour with the Saudi royal family after criticising the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). He lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S.

Journalists at the Capital in Annapolis, Maryland, continued to do their jobs even after suffering a deadly shooting inside their newsroom.

Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo remain in prison for their investigative work on the ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in this majority-Buddhist country.

Ressa has been highly critical of Rodrigo Duterte's government in her native Philippines and as a consequence, was slapped with trumped-up tax fraud charges meant to intimidate her. She turned herself into authorities after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

In 2017, the Time honoured the "Silence Breakers," women and men who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment as their "People of the Year".

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