World Press Freedom Day is a reminder that journalism has never been more dangerous – or more vital

Today is World Press Freedom Day. It’s a moment when many international news outlets, alongside organisations such as the United Nations and Reporters without Borders, highlight the many and growing dangers to journalists around the world.

Last year was the deadliest for journalists in decades, with at least 124 reporters killed while doing their jobs, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinian reporters in Gaza. And beyond the threat of violence, journalists are facing extreme legal and economic threats from states and leaders who wish to silence them. Just this week, a Swedish reporter was sentenced in Turkey for “insulting” president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

This is obviously an issue close to the heart of the Guardian, and especially many of our international correspondents. This week we’ve marked World Press Freedom Day with a series of powerful reports about the threats faced by reporters, including a special investigative series, the Viktoriia Project.

Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was captured in 2023 and died after a year in Russian captivity, having set out to expose the systematic detention and torture of civilians in occupied Ukraine. Our reporting team of Manisha Ganguly, Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer, Lucy Swan and Juliette Garside worked with journalists in Ukraine, and in a collaboration organised by the French newsroom Forbidden Stories, to investigate her death and the conditions inside Taganrog Sizo 2, a prison so notorious it has become known as Russia’s Guantanamo Bay.

The most drastic change since we marked this day in 2024 is the US administration’s avowed hostility towards the press. At the centre of Trump’s crusade against US media is CBS News and its flagship news show, 60 Minutes. Eric Berger laid out the backdrop to the battle, as the network’s corporate owners seek to settle a lawsuit with Trump and stay on the administration’s good side to ensure a smooth sale of the company. Columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote that the alleged loss of editorial independence at 60 Minutes, an American journalistic institution, is the red alert for press freedom we should heed. Meanwhile the Guardian’s general counsel in the United States, Kai Falkenberg, gave an overview of the many lawsuits and intimidation tactics the administration is using against media groups. And, on Friday, Trump also signed a new executive order cutting funding for public broadcasters PBS and NPR.

Trump’s war on the press has had a huge international impact too. Today, media editor Michael Savage has examined why Russia and China are cheering on his attacks on the media, especially as they have resulted in the dismantling of Voice of America – the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda – as well as the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas. This is, as one interviewee put it: “A cocktail for a misinformed world”.

Intersecting with the physical dangers faced by many journalists around the world are a series of extremely challenging economic conditions facing media organisations. At the Guardian we are fortunate to be able to lobby on behalf of independent journalism because of the direct financial support from readers who share our values. If you can afford to, and don’t already, please consider becoming a regular supporter of our journalism by clicking here.

Canada’s Liberal party pulled off a remarkable election victory, thanks in large part to Donald Trump who, as Leyland Cecco wrote, provoked a wave of patriotism with his trade war and suggestions that the country could be annexed by the US. Leyland was at the scene when Liberal leader Mark Carney gave his victory speech. With Carney heading to Washington DC next week, Leyland also considered the challenges he faces: rebuilding a new kind of relationship with the US - and the world. Former Justin Trudeau speechwriter Colin Horgan warned against excessive jubilation over what was fundamentally a vote against Trump. We tracked all the results in our first-ever Canadian election vote tracker, by Seán Clarke.

Meanwhile, Australia has been getting ready to vote in today’s election. You can follow all of our coverage of the results as they come in here. The final week of the campaign was marked by the opposition leader Peter Dutton calling the Guardian and the national broadcaster, the ABC, “hate media”. Chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy reported that Donald Trump’s campaign chief, Chris LaCivita, claimed he visited Australia to advise Dutton’s Liberal party at the start of the election campaign; Ariel Bogle uncovered who H Fong, the man behind millions of spam campaign text messages to Australians, really is and Lenore Taylor, Guardian Australia’s editor, has penned an editorial laying out the choices for progressive voters ahead of the election.

This week marked 100 days since Donald Trump took office for the second time. Alongside his assault on the media, prominent motifs of his new term have included shattering global alliances, and attacks on trade and the rule of law. The US politics team profiled Trump 2.0’s eventful and disruptive start in a beautifully designed 100 Days feature. Elsewhere, Guardian US columnist Mehdi Hasan appeared on Today in Focus to talk about the disruption of these first three months; Mona Eltahawy wrote a moving piece comparing the change in Trump’s US, where she lives, with the authoritarianism that has long blighted Egypt, her homeland. Economics editor Heather Stewart visited Pittsburgh to see how Trump’s tariffs are biting in the steel city.

At 12.33pm local time on Monday, the power went out in Spain. In a nationwide outage that spread to Portugal and parts of south-western France, trains stopped in their tracks, ATMs failed at the moment cashless payment did too and hospitals relied on emergency generators. Madrid correspondent Sam Jones reported on the “pragmatism and polite, almost jocular, panic” in the city, dictating his story to editors in London down the phone when internet access went down. Ashifa Kassam and Jennifer Rankin told the story of the day and Jasper Jolly explored how vulnerable power grids are – especially those dominated by wind and solar.

There were local elections across England on Thursday, with Nigel Farage’s populist rightwing Reform party making sweeping gains in council elections as well as overturning a large Labour majority to squeak a byelection in Runcorn and Helsby by just six votes. Political correspondent Kiran Stacey asked if Farage’s quest to rid Reform of “amateurism” is finally paying off, while our panel of experts analysed the implications. John Harris and John Domokos took a road trip through Lincolnshire for the Anywhere but Westminster series. There Reform made huge gains, including its first regional mayor.

After a two month blockade of aid by Israel, food supplies in Gaza are at a critical point – with dire warnings that mass starvation could be imminent. Ibtisam Ghalia and her four children are just one of the families living on the brink of starvation, with no sign of an end to the blockade. Jason Burke in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza spoke to Ibtisam about how she and her family are surviving as their food runs out.

We were in Ho Chi Minh City as it marked 50 years since the fall of Saigon, speaking to those who were there on the day. South-east Asia correspondent Rebecca Ratcliffe also explored how Trump has upended the US relationship with Vietnam with his tariff threats.

Working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Tom Burgis and Maeve McClenaghan dug into how China tracks and crushes dissent abroad. We revealed that an online campaign during the riots in the UK last summer had urged the far right to attack two young Hong Kong activists living in exile in what seems to be a new tactic by the Chinese state.

Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown revealed in an opinion piece and accompanying news story by media editor Michael Savage that he has made a fresh complaint to the police about alleged wrongdoing by Rupert Murdoch’s News Group empire.

Are rivers alive? That was the question posed by nature writer Robert Macfarlane in this thought-provoking and inspiring piece. If they are, he asked, what can we do to protect them with proper legal rights?

It’s been a huge week for football in Europe. Liverpool closed out an inevitable Premier League title, one which, unlike their last in 2020, they were allowed to celebrate with their fans. Jonathan Wilson was masterful as usual on manager Arne Slot’s triumph (or was it Jürgen Klopp’s?) in his weekly newsletter. Meanwhile, Chelsea again sealed the WSL title, a first for their coach Sonia Bompastor. We also followed the drama of the men’s and women’s Champions League semi-finals, including an extraordinary comeback by Arsenal’s women against Lyon and a mind-boggling performance by the 17-year-old Lamine Yamal for Barcelona’s men v Inter.

Among our culture highlights this week were Alexis Petridis’s moving interview with Ozzy Osbourne and other members of Black Sabbath ahead of their extraordinary metal star-studded farewell gig at Birmingham’s Villa Park; huge names in the world of art picking their 25 best moments in the 25-year history of London’s Tate Modern and Ryan Gilbey’s jaw-dropping interview with Joel Souza, director of the tragedy-marred Rust, who claimed he wished he’d never written the film. Our new column My Cultural Awakening asked readers and Guardian writers to share stories of the art that upended their lives. First up, an anonymous contributor explaining how Sex and the City helped to end their loveless marriage.

One more thing … I’d like to recommend two recent books by Guardian colleagues.