Philippine Journalist Maria Ressa And Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi Named Time Person Of The Year

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Apeksha Bagchi

IWB Blogger

Philippine Journalist Maria Ressa And Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi Named Time Person Of The Year

IWB Post

December 12, 2018

The Time magazine has honored Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Philippine journalist Maria Ressa by naming them as Time’s ‘Person Of The Year.’ The magazine also honoured Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who are currently imprisoned in Myanmar and the staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, of which five members died in a shooting that took place in June in their office.

Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October this year in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate. Khashoggi wrote for The Washington Post and was a critic of the Saudi royalty. As for Lone and Soe Oo, they were thrown into jail by the Myanmar authorities as they had been reporting about the atrocities against the Rohingya. The Capital Gazette office in Annapolis, Maryland, was attacked by a gunman in June 2018.

“As we looked at the choices it became clear that the manipulation and abuse of truth is really the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said. “So we chose to highlight four individuals and one group who have taken great risks in pursuit of greater truth, starting with Jamal Khashoggi.”

55-year-old Maria Ressa runs Rappler, an online news site that covers the violent drug war and extrajudicial killings of President Rodrigo Duterte. Not happy with the direction Ressa was going in, in November the site was charged with tax fraud and allegations were made against Ressa.

H/T: Rappler