A group of journalists whose work has landed them in jail — or cost them their lives — has been named TIME’s Person of the Year for 2018.

“Like all human gifts, courage comes to us at varying levels and at varying moments,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay about the selection. “This year we are recognizing four journalists and one news organization who have paid a terrible price to seize the challenge of this moment: Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Md.”

The magazine revealed its choice of "The Guardians and the War on Truth" on Tuesday on TODAY, along with the four magazine covers featuring Khashoggi, Ressa, the Gazette staff and the wives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

TIME's choice for 2018 Person of the Year, featured on four separate covers: Jamal Khashoggi (upper left), the staff of the Capital Gazette newspaper (upper right), Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, represented in photos held by their wives (lower left) and Maria Ressa (lower right). TIME

Jamal Khashoggi is the Washington Post columnist murdered for his criticism of the Saudi crown prince. Maria Ressa is the editor of a Philippine news website renowned for its critical coverage of its president’s controversially violent policies. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Myanmar while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims.

The Capital Gazette is the paper targeted by a gunman who opened fire into the newsroom, killing four journalists and a sales assistant.

TIME selected the group "for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts that are central to civil discourse, for speaking up and speaking out."

The magazine said the four individuals and the lone newspaper symbolize something bigger than themselves.

“They are representative of a broader fight by countless others around the world — as of Dec. 10, at least 52 journalists have been murdered in 2018 — who risk all to tell the story of our time,” Felsenthal wrote in his essay.

The Person of the Year title is not necessarily an honor or award, but representative of the influence the person — or idea — has had on the news within the past year, for better or worse.

Felsenthal, who appeared Tuesday on TODAY to make the reveal, said this marks the first year TIME has named someone who is no longer alive a Person of the Year.

"But it’s also very rare that a person’s influence grows so immensely in death," he said of Khashoggi. "His murder has prompted a global reassessment of the Saudi crown prince and a really long overdue look at the devastating war in Yemen."

TIME has made the designation every year since 1927.

"As we looked at the choices, it became clear that the manipulation of truth is really the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley," Felsenthal said.

Last year, magazine editors selected The Silence Breakers, the individuals who spoke up and sparked a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault.

The year before that, 2016, was Donald Trump, who had just become president-elect after his stunning White House victory.

Editors named Trump as this year's runner up, citing "a crowning irony" to the president's influence.

"His ultimate impact may be determined as much by the resistance he engenders as by the goals he pursues," the magazine said.

"This year brought forth the consequences of Trump's disruption. The deficit soared. The stock market trembled. The voters revolted. Special counsel Robert Mueller circled closer. Trump has tested the system and exposed its weaknesses, but also revealed its strength."

"He has been a disrupter, stoking political divisions, breaking institutional norms and weakening the power of the federal government from within," TIME wrote of Trump. Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Following close behind as the third runner-up was Trump's nemesis and the frequent subject of his anger on Twitter: Robert Mueller, the special counsel heading the investigation into Russia's meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

"The public narrative of Mueller's investigation this year has often described its central character more as myth than man," writes TIME. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call/File

"To critics on the right, Mueller is an overzealous prosecutor drunk on power and roaming beyond his mandate in a bid to drum Trump out of office. To liberals, he is a crusading hero who won't quit until he brings the President to justice," the magazine said. "The public narrative of Mueller's investigation this year has often described its central character more as myth than man."

Others who made the 2018 shortlist include the student activists who led a march on Washington — and hundreds of satellite marches across the world. The protests were led by the survivors of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler, and the former Meghan Markle, now Duchess of Sussex were also among this year's "Person of the Year" finalists.