Time Magazine. This is not just a reputed international magazine. This is a dossier of the world’s contemporary socio-economic and cultural and business events. Time magazine. Not just any other economic, socio-cultural and business journal, but rather a global habit that’s been obsessed about and cultivated with a rich penchant by those who truly care about the world they are a part of.
In the past so many decades, among the finest highlights of this great American publication focused on global events of our times is the Time’s Person of the year, a yearly award so to speak that places on the front cover of a truly epic publication, the most debated and important person of a year.
2018 is coming to an end with only a few days to go before 2019 welcomes us. Therefore, it was time for Time magazine to announce the Time’s 2018 person of the year. There’s been no dearth of massively impressive social campaigns that have put the women of the world back to where they’ve always belonged: right beside the men and ideally, leading them in various spheres of life.
Thanks to the famous and much-needed #MeToo campaign, the women of the world were empowered, rather self-empowered to fight back and claim their place, as they spoke of the injustice they were made to put up with. Then there were other global events that shape the geopolitics and defined the conflict in certain parts of the world. For example, who can forget about the Yemen Crisis? Similarly, who can forget about the many innovations that shaped the modern world this year, including the talking robots bearing human emotions?
Yet, none of what one saw in 2018 came to define the sentiment and feeling of the world as intricately or passionately as that of people like the murdered journalist Khashoggi. He wasn’t even at fault or was he? What happened to Khashoggi is a warning to all journalists in the world that true reportage is probably finding itself threatened now, more than ever.
Having said that, putting Khashoggi as the Time’s 2018’s person of the year cover is indeed a victory for the concept and spirit of journalism and fearless reporting. Isn’t it? Thanks to Time Magazine for that. But that told one would be making a mistake to assume that there weren’t others who had a famous mention in the 2018 edition.
The popular British Tabloid Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk) reported the following in regards to the Time’s 2018’s person of the year development and it’s worth a read or a re-read.
Here’s what you need to know.
The ‘guardians’ are slain Saudi journalist Khashoggi; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot and killed at the newspaper’s offices in June; Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who has been arrested; and two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar for nearly a year, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
Rounding out those expressly named are Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, Sudanese freelance journalist Amal Habani, Brazilian reporter Patricia Campos Mello, and Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor for the Financial Times.