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Time 'Person of Year' goes to journalists 'who've made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of truth'

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Time 'Person of Year' goes to journalists 'who've made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of truth'

Time magazine's assistant managing editor Ben Goldberger
Photo by Reuters
Time magazine's assistant managing editor Ben Goldberger

12th December 2018

By: Reuters

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Time Magazine on Tuesday presented its "Person of the Year" honor to a group of journalists, including a slain Saudi Arabian writer and a pair of Reuters reporters imprisoned by Myanmar's government, as the magazine warned the ideal of truth as critical to democracy is under assault.

The publication also honored the founder of a Philippines news website critical of that country's government and a Maryland newspaper that was the target of a mass shooting, marking the first occasion in the magazine's 95-year history that Time has bestowed the distinction on its own profession.

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A cover story in the issue highlighted the role of journalists including Reuters' Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who Myanmar imprisoned for violating a state secrets act and Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and critic of the nation's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was slain two months ago inside a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.

"It's a group of journalists who, simply by doing their jobs, are standing up for some of the most essential values on which we all depend -- facts, the pursuit of truth, and the fight against misinformation," Ben Goldberger, Time magazine's assistant managing editor, said during an interview. "These were the strongest examples of people who had made, in some cases, the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of the truth."

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The annual distinction is intended to recognize the person, group, thing or idea that had the greatest influence on world events that year. It has been given to a wide range of influencers over the decades, from U.S. civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Queen Elizabeth II to Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, who was selected before the start of World War Two.

Wednesday will mark one year since Reuters journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were imprisoned for their work investigating the killing of villagers from Muslim Rohingya minority by Myanmar's security forces and civilian mobs. They were convicted on September 3 under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in a case seen as a test of democratic freedoms in Myanmar.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in September that the case had nothing to do with freedom of expression. She has also urged people to read the judgment in the case and "point out where there has been a miscarriage of justice".

Khashoggi was killed two months ago at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he went there to collect documents for his forthcoming marriage. He was the first person to be named a Time Person of the Year after his death.

US senators briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency have said they are certain that the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi's killing, a view US President Donald Trump has said he is skeptical of. The crown prince has denied knowledge of the operation that killed Khashoggi.

Time also honored Maria Ressa, the founder of the Philippine news site Rappler that has been a frequent critic of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, and the staff of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, where a gunman shot and killed five people in June.

Ressa and her site were charged with tax evasion by the Philippines' justice department in November.

The four groups were highlighted on four separate covers of the magazine, one of which features the wives of the imprisoned Reuters reporters embracing one another as they hold photos of their husbands.

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