Roy Greenslade presents this four-part documentary series on the freedom of the press.
Part One - Government control
When reporting, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was critical of the government and sought to expose the human rights abuses of the war in Chechnya. The deputy editor of the newspaper she worked for, Vitaly Yaroshevsky, believed she was killed because of her work. "We don't see any other motive for this terrible crime," he said.
Part one of this series looks at the effects of government control and the risks that journalists take to pursue the truth.
We hear from a young Iraqi journalist - Ali Fedhil - who describes the dangers of being perceived to belong to one press faction in Iraq over another.
Peta Thornycroft talks about the difficulties of being a foreign correspondent in a country that wants to put you in prison.
