Photo from Time
Just recently, Time has named multiple journalists as persons of the year for 2018. With the striking title: “The Guardians and the War on Truth”, Time pays tribute to journalists all over the world who have notably unraveled the truths of society despite the unfortunate consequences – including confronting the face of death.
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi told the world the truth about the brutality of his country’s government. Unafraid of exposing his country’s reality to the world, Khashoggi was eager to fight for his people. But this led to an unfortunate end: Khashoggi was murdered for telling the truth – just as how a number journalists were killed providing people the truths of our world.
Similar to Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, CEO of online news site Rappler, relentlessly covered the violent drug war and brutal extrajudicial killings of President Rodrigo Duterte which has left 12, 000 Filipinos dead. Duterte has banned Rappler from all his presidential events and now Ressa faces tax fraud that could send her to prison for an estimate of 10 years. Regardless, Ressa and the rest of the members of Rappler continue to cover the truths of the Philippine society.
Time also paid tribute to the staff of Capital, a newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications after five members were killed by a gun man in late June 2018. But despite the devastating event that occurred, it did not stop them to release a paper the following day. The gun man who attacked Capital Gazelle was believed to had the intention of silencing the paper from releasing news – but this did not stop them from doing their duty on telling the truth.
In Myanmar, two Reuters reporters continue to long for their wives and children behind bars as they were sentenced by the government back in September 2018. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were framed by the police for violating the country’s Official Secret’s Act – which did not stop the Myanmar government from punishing them as the jury believed that the two would have been useful to enemies of the state and terrorist organizations. Their family seek justice up until today.
In this present age, news travels faster with the advancement of technology all over the globe. Not only through online news sites but also through social media, we are able to share events and be informed of what is happening in different parts of the world. Despite the evolution of technology, there are still dangers of using social media as a platform of apprehending news which are in question of credibility. Biased accounts have been continuously sharing false information to the public, failing to state actual facts leading to misinformation among the people of society. It is important for us to tell the truth and to know the truth for us to let ourselves be aware of the reality around us.
This year, journalists all over the world covered of what people said and did, no matter how dreadful those stories are. They were unafraid to tell the people what they needed to hear and not what people in authority want them to hear.
In these modern times, it is undeniable that it is truly hard to grasp of what is real or not. That is why these featured journalists and journalists all over the world have a duty to distinguish what is true, regardless of the challenge of being silenced. Journalists are catalysts of social change by unraveling the truth. They tell us the narratives, stories, and events that happen all over the world to tell us think and be critical. They do not necessary give us solutions on how to solve the world’s problems but it is their eagerness of sharing the world the truth that will move us in doing something about it.
Are you willing to fight for the truth?
