Stephen Sackur is one of the most respected news journalists in the country. For nearly 20 years, as the lead presenter of the BBC's HARDtalk, he deployed a fearless, forensic style of questioning as the programme's inquisitor-in-chief. In Hard Truth he issues a rallying cry for the vital and continuing role of investigative journalism in holding the powerful to account.

From Russia's Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered for chronicling the horrors of Putin's second Chechen war, to China's Zhang Zhan, who has spent the last six years in prison for attempting to share the truth about the Chinese Government's response to the spread of Covid-19, Hard Truth highlights ten dramatic cases when brave journalists told truth to power, sometimes paying the ultimate price.

In a world turned toxic by disinformation, where lies are weaponised and the truth is targeted, independent journalists are increasingly on the frontline of the fight to save democracy. Hard Truth demonstrates that it is a fight that can still be won.