Iran Press/Middle East: The group includes Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi who was killed at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October. This is the first time that a Person of the Year is a deceased person.
Another cover features Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who were arrested one year ago in Myanmar while they were working on stories about the killings of Rohingya Muslims, a minority population in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The two men remain behind bars. Their wives were photographed for the cover.
"The Guardians" also includes the journalists at the Capital Gazette, the Annapolis, Maryland newspaper where five employees were murdered by a gunman last June.
And the fourth cover shows Maria Ressa, chief executive of the Philippine news website Rappler. She was indicted last month on tax evasion charges — a case that free speech and civil liberties advocates have warned is part of a wider crackdown on dissent by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's administration.
This is the first time, the magazine chosen someone no longer alive as Person of the Year, but it's also very rare that a person's influence grows so immensely in death.
His murder has prompted a global reassessment of the Saudi crown prince and a really long overdue look at the devastating war in Yemen.
Khashoggi, 59, an outspoken critic of Mohammed bin Salman, disappeared after he entered the Saudi diplomatic mission in the Turkish city on October 2 to complete some paperwork for his forthcoming marriage.
After 18 days of silence and rejecting claims that Khashoggi was killed, the Saudi government finally bowed down to international pressure on October 20th and claimed the prominent journalist was killed in a fist-fight inside Istanbul consulate.
Recently, Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Irfan Fidan said the ill-fated journalist had been strangled upon his arrival in the consulate, and then his body was dismembered and destroyed.
Riyadh claims that the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge about any murder plot.
Khashoggi's killing has put mounting pressure on Riyadh and Mohammad Bin Salman and undermined them. 101/ 211 /202
Read More:
US Treasury sanctions 17 Saudi officials over Khashoggi Killing
Guardian: Khashoggi killed for revealing Saudi funding of anti-Iran TV channel
Khashoggi’s body parts found in garden of Saudi consul general’s home in Istanbul
