Time magazine named a group of journalists, including the murdered Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, as its person of the year for 2018 on Tuesday, honoring their dedicated pursuit of the truth despite a war on facts and tremendous obstacles, including violence and imprisonment.

The choice was a nod to the spread of misinformation in the United States and abroad by leaders who have sought to quash critical independent journalism. And it offered a not-so-subtle rebuke to President Trump, an avid follower of the Person of the Year honor who, when asked last month about the upcoming decision, replied, “I can’t imagine anybody else other than Trump.”

Besides Mr. Khashoggi, the honorees include the staff of the Capital Gazette newspapers in Maryland, where five people were shot dead in June; Maria Ressa, the founder of Rappler, a news start-up under attack by the authoritarian president of the Philippines; and U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar after reporting the massacre of Muslim men.

Time magazine published covers honoring each of the recipients, who were collectively called “the guardians of truth.”