For four months, Nigerian investigative journalist Tobore Ovuorie posed as a sex worker determined to shine a light on the plight of women trafficked for sex, only to become trapped by the very people she sought to expose. Her report, published in 2014, revealed the full horror of her experience. She had uncovered a network of violence, murder and organ harvesting.

Rana Rahimpour has faced death threats, rape threats, travel bans, asset freezes, and online smears since starting work for the BBC’s Persian service.

Born and raised in Iran. She has a bachelor’s degree in English-Persian translation from Islamic Azad University and another in accounting from Al- Zahra University. When she aspired to work for the UN, she chose journalism, believing it would be ‘a good gateway into humanitarian work’.

In 2019, journalist Izabella Evloeva, then aged 36, left Russia for what she thought would be a two-month break.

Three and a half years later, she has yet to return after being placed on a watch list for covering protests in Ingushetia on her news website Fortanga.

Imagine you’re the type of person who never gives up fighting for the truth. You receive the most prestigious award in your field, but you can’t receive it in person for no reason other than that you were born in occupied land and the occupying forces have issued a travel ban against you.

Ukrainian journalist Anna Babinets, 37, is used to controversy, and to being on the receiving end of threats. The investigative agency Slidstvo.info, that she co-founded ten years ago, specialises in investigating high-level crime and government corruption.

Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang knew she would be arrested at some point, and even wrote a farewell letter, but she didn’t know when – until, on 6 October 2020, police turned up in the middle of the night at her flat in Ho Chi Minh City.