One thing Guardian staff have done to defend press freedom and one thing you can do

"Press freedom is more of a practical and relentless daily struggle. I've been asking colleagues from across the Guardian to tell me about one of the things they have done to protect press freedom this past year from our international correspondents and investigative reporters to our visual journalists and commercial and technology departments. The range and scope of their responses will probably surprise you. But as the threats to independent journalism multiply, so must the measures taken to defend it."

"I worked with a team of journalists to piece together what happened to Viktoriia Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist who died aged 27 while investigating Russia's black sites', where some of the worst human rights abuses take place. The Viktoriia Project was an investigation by a consortium of international media partners including the Guardian and Ukrainska Pravda, and was led by the French newsroom Forbidden Stories. In November, prison bosses at the Taganrog Sizo-2 detention centre were added to the EU sanctions list, after being identified by the Viktoriia Project."

"I produced an artwork to accompany an investigation into the Russian prison in Taganrog and the Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Working with very sparse images of the prison and the story, I tried to give our readers a sense of the place and highlight the abuses being carried out by the Russian state."

"I launched Secure Messaging, a new way for sources and whistleblowers to securely"

Press freedom operates as a daily, relentless struggle rather than a simple principle. Journalists across multiple roles take concrete steps to protect independent reporting as threats increase. A team of journalists worked on the Viktoriia Project to investigate Russia’s black sites and the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, involving international media partners and Forbidden Stories. The investigation helped identify prison bosses at Taganrog Sizo-2, who were later added to the EU sanctions list. Visual and product teams also contributed by creating artwork to convey the prison’s conditions and by launching Secure Messaging to help sources and whistleblowers communicate securely. Reader support is presented as essential to sustaining these efforts.

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