“The Protester” was named Wednesday as Time Magazine’s 2011 “Person of the Year.”
The magazine annually honors the individual or group it deems the most influential that year, and thanks to protests that spread across Europe, the Middle East and the US in 2011, it chose the anonymous “Protester” for the coveted title.
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“From the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow…,” the magazine’s “Person of the Year” cover stated, alongside a drawing of a determined-looking face that is partially obscured by a scarf and hat.
In a reference to the ousting of Moammar Khadafy, the magazine paid tribute to “the people who toppled governments and brought a sense of dignity to a people who didn’t have it before.”
The choice was announced on NBC’s “Today” show by managing editor Richard Stengel.
“For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the Protester is Time’s 2011 Person of the Year,” Stengel said in a statement.
Protests in Tunisia at the start of the year saw the toppling of dictator Ben Ali and spread to Egypt and Libya, with their successes sparking a wave of uprisings through Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
Profiles of actual protesters featured in the magazine’s editorial, from the Egyptian dentist Ahmed Harara, who was blinded, eye by eye, during separate revolutions in the country, to “Loukanikos the Protest Dog,” who was regularly pictured alongside angry demonstrators protesting austerity measures in Athens.
The magazine’s acknowledgement of the “Protester” comes as the anti-capitalist “Occupy” movement continues its growing presence in the West.
It is not the first time the magazine has chosen a controversial figure for the title — in 2006, “You” was announced “Person of the Year,” with a mirror-like surface published on the cover.
Runners-up this year included the Duchess of Cambridge, who married Britain’s Prince William in April, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whose deficit-reduction plan makes him the “most influential American politician.”
Last year, the title was taken by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.