She faced endless opposition and threats to her life. This has become a reality for far too many journalists

Maxine Peake

A woman places flowers in front of a portrait of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Moscow, 2009. Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

What drives someone to become a journalist? A good journalist, someone whose keyboard is a tool for exposing injustice, a truth-seeker who would risk life and limb to report their experiences back to the world? I know I couldn’t do it. I’ve interviewed people for a research project and was hopeless. I found myself shying away from asking the really difficult questions. There’s no way I could confront a corrupt official, or race to file a breaking story before a hostile regime tried to silence me, possibly for ever. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who would speak truth to power, but would I really, if my life was in the balance?

One of the many privileges of being an actor is that it affords you the opportunity to dip your toes into other worlds and experiences from the safest possible distance. In the upcoming film Words of War, I have the honour of portraying the Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya – a woman with immense courage and integrity who, despite numerous threats to her life, continued to be a blazing beacon of truth in a time and place where speaking truth was extremely dangerous. The film, which was partly inspired by Politkovskaya’s obituary in this newspaper, allowed me to delve into her remarkable life and work. The experience gave me a deeper appreciation for the journalists who risk everything to tell the stories that inform and shape our world….

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/26/anna-politkovskaya-brave-threats-journalists

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