‘From HARDtalk to hard truths, Stephen Sackur provides a vital book on the importance of journalism and the insidious threats to it’
Jon Sopel, co-host of The News Agents

‘Stephen Sackur is a journalist of rare courage and toughness who is deservedly respected across the world for his uncompromising and brilliant interviews’
Rory Stewart, co-host of The Rest is Politics

From Woodward and Bernstein’s famous expose´ of a crooked American president to the shocking murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia who confronted deep-rooted corruption in Malta, Hard Truth explores ten dramatic cases where journalists showed astonishing bravery in uncovering the truth, sometimes paying the ultimate price.

Stephen Sackur spent many years holding political leaders to account as the presenter of BBC HARDtalk. In Hard Truth he takes us inside in a series of global investigations, highlighting the work of extraordinarily courageous journalists in a journey that leads him from Washington to the West Bank, Moscow to Manila.

Hard Truth is also the story of Sackur re-examining the assumptions underpinning the journalism he grew up with. Is it enough to bear witness and move on? What does impartiality mean when the truth itself is drowning in a sea of distraction, distortion and disinformation? Do we need journalists who see themselves as ‘activists for truth’?

In a media landscape dominated by a handful of tech oligarchs, in which lies are weaponised and reality is warped by algorithms, independent journalists are increasingly on the front line of the fight to save democracy itself. Hard Truth shows us that there is hope. It is a fight that can still be won.

Praise

Stephen Sakur is a journalist of rare courage and toughness who is deservedly respected across the world for his uncompromising and brilliant interviews
Rory Stewart, co-host of The Rest is Politics

Stephen Sackur’s investigation into the nature and future of journalism is simultaneously inspiring and elegiac. By telling the stories of some of the world’s bravest and most determined reporters, Sackur shows what journalism at its best can and should be. He also explains why investigative journalism is under threat and underlines how vital it is to the future of democracy and human freedom. This is an important and very readable book
Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times

A brave journalist on brave journalism. Stephen Sackur has written the story of the stories that made a difference – and delivered an urgent and rousing case for truth itself
Jonathan Freedland, author of The Traitors Circle: The Rebels Against the Nazis and the Spy Who Betrayed Them

From HARDtalk to hard truths, Stephen Sackur provides a vital book on the importance of journalism and the insidious threats to it
Jon Sopel, co-host of The News Agents