IPI 75 Bookshelf
75 books to celebrate press freedom and independent journalism
As the International Press Institute (IPI) celebrates its 75th anniversary, our team has compiled a list of 75 must-read books related to press freedom and independent journalism. All published in the last century, our list includes memoirs, non-fiction, and fiction titles, many of which have been authored by or about IPI members and past IPI World Press Freedom Hero Award winners. Others come recommended by IPI’s board, members, staff, and partner organizations.
We understand that no list is comprehensive, and ours is eclectic by design. You’ll find foundational books of journalism, mixed with novels, memoirs, and nonfiction from all corners of the world. A lot of the books — and their authors — are living examples of the dangers and perils of being a journalist, chronicling imprisonment, attacks, or featuring the work of those who could not survive to tell their stories.
As we prepare to host our 2025 IPI World Congress under the theme of “Defending the Future of Free Media”, this is our homage to those who kept fighting no matter what.
Books written by the IPI Board and Members
Foreign Correspondent: A Memoir
By HDS Greenway, former IPI Board member (USA)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2014
Recommended by: Christiane Klint, IPI finance and administration manager
“H.D.S. (David) Greenway is a former IPI executive board member and deputy chairman. The driving force behind IPI’s 50th anniversary World Congress, held in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2000, his distinguished career in journalism has spanned more than six decades and included posts as foreign affairs correspondent for Time Life and The Washington Post, foreign editor and editorial page editor of The Boston Globe, and contributing columnist for The Globe and other publications. But it is his years as a war correspondent that Greenway vividly recalls in this memoir. Covering conflicts in Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and the Balkans, his recollections of pivotal events in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, Burma, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Bosnia, among other countries, as well as his thoughtful observations on half a century of U.S. foreign policy, make for fascinating reading.” — Christiane Klint
Read a review in the Boston Globe
The Panama Papers
By Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier, IPI members (Germany)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2017
Recommended by: Grace Linczer, membership and engagement manager
“The Panama Papers traces how a leak from a small Panamanian law firm turned into one of the most important financial investigations of our time, and how that was only possible because journalists worked together across borders. IPI members Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier offer a grounded account of the complex task of coordinating a global network of reporters in secret, under pressure, and with a shared goal of exposing systemic abuse of power. What stands out beyond the revelations of the investigation is the process: the trust it required, the infrastructure built behind the scenes, and the strength of the community that carried this important work through. This account is a compelling reminder that collaboration isn't a nice-to-have, it's essential to the future of press freedom.” — Grace Linczer
Review: The Financial Times
Portazo al Autoritarismo (Slam the Door on Authoritarianism)
By Jorge Fascetto, former IPI Board chair (Argentina)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2014
Recommended by: IPI staff
“While on a joint IPI-Inter American Press Association mission to Venezuela, Jorge Fascetto, an Argentine media executive, interviewed Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel, who had taken issue with Fascetto’s outspoken statements against violations of press freedom in Venezuela.
The exchange, which resulted in the Vice President slamming the door while exiting the interview, gave rise to the title of Fascetto’s memoir, which recounts his long struggle for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.” — Jacket copy (Editorial Dunken).
Learn more: IPI mourns loss of former IPI Executive Board Chair Jorge Fascetto
How to Stand Up to a Dictator
By Maria Ressa, IPI Board member (Philippines)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2023
Recommended by: Gabriela Manuli, IPI director of special projects
“Maria Ressa’s latest book can be read as a compelling memoir of a powerful trailblazer, of the woman who co-founded and became CEO of the Philippine digital and investigative media organization Rappler, and who went on to win the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The book is also a story of sisterhood, highlighting the important role of her Rappler co-founders and the international lawyers who helped Ressa in the myriad legal battles she has faced against the government. But this book can also be read with an anthropological lens. How do networks of disinformation work around the world and how is this related to the rise in authoritarianism? The book serves as a cautionary tale of the dangers and power of social media platforms: While Rappler initially embraced these as a tool for change, these same tools ended up being instrumental in spreading the very disinformation that can undermine democracy.” — Gabriela Manuli
Read a review on the NPR website
Dağdakiler (Those of the Mountains)
By Kadri Gürsel, former IPI Executive Board member (Turkey)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 1996
Recommended by: IPI staff
“On March 31, 1995, journalist Kadri Gürsel, then a correspondent for the French Press Agency, and his friend Fatih Sarıbaş, a photojournalist for Reuters, were abducted by PKK members and released after 26 days of being driven through the mountains in the Bagok-Gabar region. ‘On the Mountain’ tells the story of this abduction and the 26 days spent among PKK members in the mountains.” — Jacket copy (Metis Yayınları)
Learn more: How to practice journalism under the most difficult conditions? Kadri Gürsel, abducted by the PKK 30 years ago, explains (Journo). Also watch our panel: We've been here before: the continuous fight for press freedom
50 World Editors: Conversations with Journalism Masters on Trends and Best Practices
By Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, former IPI members (Nigeria)
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2014
Recommended by: IPI staff
“From the world-famous Sir Harold Evans who is seen as ‘the editor of editors’, to the editors of iconic global media brands like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Reuters, AFP, and many others, this book of conversations reverberates with the powerful voices of journalism icons from different regions of the world.” — Jacket copy (Corporate Biographers Limited)
Review: Nigerian Current
Books written by IPI’s World Press Freedom Heroes
Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post
By Martin Baron, 2025 World Press Freedom Hero (USA)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2023
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Marty Baron took charge of The Washington Post newsroom in 2013, after nearly a dozen years leading The Boston Globe. Just seven months into his new job, Baron received explosive news: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, would buy the Post, marking a sudden end to control by the venerated family that had presided over the paper for 80 years. Just over two years later, Donald Trump won the presidency. In Collision of Power, Baron recounts this with the tenacity of a reporter and the sure hand of an experienced editor.” — Jacket copy (Flatiron Books)
The Shining Path: A History of the Millenarian War in Peru
By Gustavo Gorriti, 2025 World Press Freedom Hero (Peru)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1999
Recommended by: IPI staff
First published in Peru in 1990, The Shining Path was immediately hailed as one of the finest works on the insurgency that plagued that nation for over fifteen years. A richly detailed and absorbing account, it covers the dramatic years between the guerrillas' opening attack in 1980 and President Fernando Belaunde's reluctant decision to send in the military to contain the growing rebellion in late 1982. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and an impressive array of government and Shining Path documents, Gorriti weaves his careful research into a vivid portrait of the now-jailed Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán, Belaunde and his generals, and the unfolding drama of the fiercest war fought on Peruvian soil since the Chilean invasion a century before.” — Jacket copy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press).
Transition: Conversations and Depictions of What Was Done and Not Done for Democracy in Mexico
By Carmen Aristegui, 2023 World Press Freedom Hero (Mexico)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2010
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Mexico has been undergoing an intense process of democratization since 1988. So many things have happened since that July 6th of the same year in which the system ‘collapsed’ that our memory of where we came from and where we really want to go is lost. And its protagonists? Who were those men and women who, with their actions, words, and silences, have marked the course of the country? In this book, many of them speak in depth with Carmen Aristegui, who puts together the pieces of a puzzle that remains unsolved.’ — Jacket copy (Grijalbo Mondadori).
Learn more: Speech of World Press Freedom Hero Carmen Aristegui (IPI)
The Folds of the Waist: Central American Chronicles
By Carlos Dada, 2022 World Press Freedom Hero (El Salvador)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2023
Recommended by: IPI staff
“This series of chronicles written by Salvadoran journalist Carlos Dada is not only a selection of the best journalism produced in Spanish in the last decade, a work the author has been developing for a long time. They are also a journey through a region, Central America, often forgotten and so necessary to understand all the ills and challenges facing any society. These are stories that tell the tale of countries and were captured in villages, valleys between volcanoes, or mountain trails, where Central American life unfolds behind the backs of state institutions.” — Jacket copy (Libros del K.O.)
Learn more: Shireen Abu Akleh and Carlos Dada named 2022 IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Heroes (IPI)
Diamantes de Sangue: Corrupção e Tortura em Angola (Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola)
By Rafael Marques, 2018 World Press Freedom Hero (Angola)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2011
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Rafael Marques is one of the main figures responsible for exposing and publicizing corruption schemes involving the highest levels of power in Angola, as well as the foreign companies and entities that do business with them. In the Cuango region, the situation is tragic. For the benefit of those who mine diamonds, the population is kept in conditions of near slavery, tortured, murdered, robbed, and prevented from maintaining any form of self-sufficiency. The authorities and the government ignore the crimes, and the armed forces and police are not only complicit in them but also protagonists.” — Jacket copy (Tinta da China). Learn more: Angola’s Rafael Marques named 70th IPI Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
” — Jacket copy (Libros del K.O.)
Learn more: Angola’s Rafael Marques named 70th IPI Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
Bahare Zendegi in the Interior of Tehran
By Ahmad Zeidabadi, 2016 World Press Freedom Hero (Iran)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2018
Recommended by: IPI staff
“A memoir by journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi, this is the second volume of his autobiography. He recounts his journey to Tehran to attend university, and the surprising and challenging experiences he meets there: how despite listing his father’s income as zero on his dormitory application he is still denied student housing; the odd behavior of university staff; his attempts to connect with like-minded peers, including a young woman writing stories in a magazine; his encounters with influential intellectuals and professors; being expelled from teaching because of quoting Dr. Shariati in a letter to a student; and first-hand memories of the war, the Cultural Revolution, political and cultural figures of the era, and his early journalism.” — Jacket copy (Nashreney)
Learn more: IPI names Iran’s Ahmad Zeidabadi World Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin
Marie Colvin, 2013 World Press Freedom Hero (USA)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2012
Recommended by: IPI staff
“A fearless, passionate veteran reporter of conflicts from around the world, Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin was killed in February 2012, covering the uprising in Syria from the besieged city of Homs. On the Front Line includes her various interviews with Yasser Arafat and Colonel Gadaffi; reports from East Timor in 1999 where she shamed the UN into protecting its refugees; accounts of her terrifying escape from the Russian army in Chechnya; and reports from the strongholds of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers where she was hit by shrapnel, leaving her blind in one eye.” — Jacket copy (HarperPress)
Review: The Guardian
A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping From Two Sides
By David Rohde, 2012 World Press Freedom Hero (USA) and Kristen Mulvihill
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2010
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Kristen Mulvihill was married to the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent David Rohde for two months when she received a call in 2008 from David's brother, Lee. Lee told Mulvihill that David never returned from his last interview in Kabul — a meeting he had arranged with a Taliban commander. Rohde was abducted — and for seven months, he and his translator and driver were prisoners of a hard-line Taliban faction that operated out of Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas. And in June 2009, Rohde and his translator mounted a daring escape. Now, he and Mulvihill have written A Rope and a Prayer, an account of their separate experiences when Rohde was a prisoner of the Taliban.” — Jacket copy (Penguin Books)
Review: NPR
Four Days in Lusaka: Whites in a Changing Society
By Raymond Louw, 2011 World Press Freedom Hero (South Africa)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1989
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The book documents what happened at The Five Freedoms Forum, a four-day conference held in Lusaka, Zambia from June 29 to July 2, 1989. The meeting involved a multidisciplinary group of mostly white South Africans opposing apartheid, and members of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC). Displaying courage in the face of apartheid repression, Louw was instrumental in establishing the Media Defence Trust, set up under the apartheid regime to defend journalists against state censorship and detention.” — IPI Staff.
Learn more: IPI mourns loss of South Africa journalist Raymond Louw (IPI)
تاريکخانه اشباح (The Dungeon of Ghosts)
By Akbar Ganji, 2010 Hero (Iran)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1999
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Ganji’s articles accused several high-level political figures and clerics of having been involved in the systematic assassinations of intellectuals and dissidents, and accused then-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s government of fostering “moral and financial corruption”. The exposés were collected in a book called The Dungeon of Ghosts, which quickly became a bestseller, and is credited with spurring the defeat of a number of conservative candidates in the 2000 elections. In March 2000, the editor of the paper, Saeed Hajjarian, was shot in the face by an unidentified gunman, and left paralysed for life.” — IPI Staff.
Learn more: Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji declared IPI’s 59th World Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
Havana Real
By Yoani Sánchez, 2010 World Press Freedom Hero (Cuba)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2011
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Yoani Sánchez is an unusual dissident: no street protests, no attacks on big politicos, no calls for revolution. Rather, she produces a simple diary about what it means to live under the Castro regime; the chronic hunger and the difficulty of shopping; the art of repairing ancient appliances; and the struggles of living under a propaganda machine that pushes deep into public and private life. For these simple acts of truth-telling her life is one of constant threat. But she continues on, refusing to be silenced — a living response to all who have ceased to believe in a future for Cuba.” — Jacket copy (Melville House)
Learn more: Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez is named IPI’s 60th and final World Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking
By Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, 2010 World Press Freedom Hero (Mexico)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2010
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Illegal, inhuman, and impervious to recession, there is one trade that continues to thrive, just out of sight. The international sex trade criss-crosses the entire globe, a sinister network made up of criminal masterminds, local handlers, corrupt policemen, willfully blind politicians, eager consumers, and countless hapless women and children. In this ground-breaking work of investigative reporting, the celebrated journalist Lydia Cacho follows the trail of the traffickers and their victims from Mexico to Turkey, Thailand to Iraq, Georgia to the UK, to expose the trade's hidden links with the tourist industry, internet pornography, drugs and arms smuggling, the selling of body organs, money laundering, and even terrorism.” — Jacket copy (Catapult)
Review: The Washington Post
Le ciel m’attendra (Heaven Can Wait)
By May Chidiac, 2010 World Press Freedom Hero (Lebanon)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2007
Recommended by: IPI staff
“An autobiographical account of May Chidiac, a prominent Lebanese journalist and press freedom advocate. Chidiac, a former television anchor for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), recounts an assassination attempt in September 2005, in which she lost part of her left leg and left arm, and how this did not deter her from expressing her opinion.” — IPI Staff.
Learn more: Interview with IPI World Press Freedom Hero May Chidiac (IPI)
Two Close Peoples Two Distant Neighbours
By Hrant Dink, 2007 World Press Freedom Hero (Turkey)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2014
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Hrant Dink never had a published book. He used to make fun of this and say, "I am a writer without a book." Of course, this joke points to an important fact: Hrant was a true man of action. As the founder and chief editor of Agos, he contributed to the democratization of Turkey, creating a platform for debate about Turkey’s most deeply-rooted problems, including Turkish-Armenian relations. Two Close Peoples Two Distant Neighbours is the only book Hrant had the opportunity to finish. Here, with the common future he envisages for Turkey and Armenia, he exhibits a completely new perspective that also declares its desire to repair the past.” — Jacket copy (Hrant Dink Foundation Publications)
Learn more: Hrant Dink’s murder: Is delayed and incomplete justice still justice? (IPI)
A Russian Diary
By Anna Politkovskaya, 2006 World Press Freedom Hero (Russia)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2006
Recommended by: IPI staff
“A Russian Diary is the book that Anna Politkovskaya had recently completed when she was murdered in a contract killing in Moscow. Covering the period from the Russian parliamentary elections of December 2003 to the tragic aftermath of the Beslan school siege in late 2005, A Russian Diary is an unflinching record of the plight of millions of Russians and a pitiless report on the cynicism and corruption of Vladimir Putin's Presidency.” — Jacket copy (Penguin)
Learn more: Remembering Anna Politkovskaya: ‘She became a role model for many young Russian journalists’ (IPI)
Drinking the Sea at Gaza
By Amira Hass, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Israel)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1999
Recommended by: IPI staff
“In 1993, Amira Hass, a Jerusalem-born journalist whose parents survived the Holocaust, drove to Gaza to cover a story. She ended up staying for years, making friends and learning about life in an area that most Israelis — and indeed most Arabs — have never ventured into. And although Haas’ book was published while the Oslo Accords were very much top of mind in Gaza, the newspaper writer’s chronicles of the daily griefs and joys of a people crammed into 365 square kilometres resonates today.” — The Globe and Mail
Learn more: Books that provide context for the events unfolding in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank (The Globe and Mail)
The Cartel
By Jesús Blancornelas, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Mexico)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2003
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The Cartel exposes the hidden and sordid face of drug trafficking. Behind the ballads and the relationships, behind the money and property, there is a group of traffickers who have staked their claim for many years and have not hesitated to act. The Cartel is the chronicle of this phenomenon, narrated by Tijuana's sole and incorruptible chronicler: Jesús Blancornelas, who from the pages of Zeta denounced, narrated, investigated, and scrutinized the truth; and who now offers us the documents that build the history of Mexico's most persecuted drug traffickers.” — Jacket copy (Debolsillo)
Learn more: Jesus Blancornelas, 70; writer exposed actions of drug cartels (Los Angeles Times)
A Danger to Society
By Juan Pablo Cárdenas, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Chile)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2011
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Beginning with the fateful September 11, 1973, Juan Pablo Cárdenas’s detective story narrates in rich detail the audacity of the press during Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship and the way it circumvented censorship to continue reporting under the most dire conditions; the tragic murder of José Carrasco — his friend and international editor of Análisis magazine; the 541 days of nighttime confinement to which he was sentenced, among multiple other sanctions for being ‘a danger to society’.” — Jacket copy (Debate)
The Journalist
By Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Nicaragua)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 2007
Recommended by: IPI staff
“On the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, this book was published with the aim of introducing new generations to his thoughts and actions. His professional quality made him a figure in international journalism. His devotion to democracy led him to fight against dictatorship throughout his professional life. El Periodista is an anthology of his editorials in La Prensa, which analyze his fight for press freedom and the ethical values that guided his work.” — Book copy (Fundación Uno). Learn more: Prize‐Winning Editor Is Shot Dead In Nicaragua (The New York Times)
My Paper Chase
Harold Evans, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (UK)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2009
Recommended by: IPI staff
“In My Paper Chase, Harold Evans recounts the wild and wonderful tale of newspapering life. His story stretches from the 1930s to his service in WWII, through towns big and off the map. He discusses his passion for the crusading style of reportage he championed, his clashes with Rupert Murdoch, and his struggle to use journalism to better the lives of those less fortunate. There's a star-studded cast and a tremendously vivid sense of what once was the lead type, the smell of the presses, eccentrics throughout, and angry editors screaming over the intercoms. My Paper Chase tells the story of Evans' great newspapers and Tina Brown, the bright, young journalist who became his wife.” — Michael Kudlak
Read a review in The Guardian
Tiger! Tiger!
By Mochtar Lubis, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Indonesia)
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1975
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Tiger! Tiger! is a tale of one man’s battle against himself. This book can be read as an adventure story in the jungle by a group of resin collectors who are hunted by a hungry tiger. For days they try to save themselves and one by one they fall victim to the tiger's attack. On another level, there is also an adventure within each member of this resin collector group. Under the pressure of the tiger's constant threat of hunting them, within each of them, which also heightens their awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their other group members. Some of them even come to the realization that before killing the tiger that hunts them, it is equally important to first kill the tiger that is within every human being.” — Jacket copy (Ishmael Tree, 1975)
Review: Asia Media International
Personal History
By Katherine Graham, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (USA)
Genre: Biography
Published: 1997
Recommended by: IPI staff
“An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women — a book that is, as its title suggests, both personal and history. It is the story of Katherine Graham's parents: the multi-millionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post; the aggressive, formidable, self-absorbed mother, known in her time for her political and welfare work, and her passionate friendships with men such as Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson.” — Jacket copy (Vintage)
Learn more: Katharine Graham at 100: Inside the making of one of the greatest Washington memoirs ever (The Washington Post)
Comrade Editor
By Gwen Lister, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Namibia)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2021
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Comrade Editor is the story of Gwen Lister, the activist journalist who achieved global renown for opposing South Africa’s occupation of Namibia. Lister cut her journalistic teeth with Hannes Smith at the Windhoek Advertiser. Together they started the Windhoek Observer. When increased pressure from the white establishment forced her out, she founded The Namibian in 1985.” — Jacket copy (Tafelberg, 2021)
Review: The Standard
Alms for Oblivion
By Fata Sano Malifa, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Samoa)
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1993
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa is a Samoan poet, playwright, writer and newspaper editor. In this book, his first novel, he includes some autobiographical elements. Set in Samoa, it also includes experiences from life in New Zealand and the United States. It’s a story about a young man’s fast journey through life, and about Samoa and its complex nature.” — IPI staff.
Learn more: IPI urges Samoa to repeal criminal libel (IPI)
Letters from Prison and Other Essays
By Adam Michnik, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Poland)
Genre: Noniction
Published: 1986
Recommended by: IPI staff
Among the voices that speak to us from Poland today (1986), the most important may be that of Adam Michnik. Michnik now sits in a jail belonging to the totalitarian regime, yet his first concern — and herein lies one of the keys to his thinking, and one should add, to his character — is with the quality of his own conduct, which, together with the conduct of other victims of the present situation, will, he is sure, one day set the tone for whatever political system follows the totalitarian debacle. His essays are the most valuable guide we have to the origins of the revolution, and, more particularly, to its innovative practices. — Jacket copy (University of California Press, 1986)
Learn more: IPI begins press freedom advocacy mission to Russia (IPI)
Notebooks of a Convict
By Pius Njawé, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Cameroon)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 1998
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Pius Njawé, editor of the newspaper Le Messager, was imprisoned for nearly 10 months in New Bell Prison in Douala, Cameroon. His only crime: reporting information about President Paul Biya's heart attack, which the authorities considered ‘spreading false news’. He was released on October 12, 1998, following a presidential pardon. During his detention, he regularly sent chronicles of his prison life to his newspaper. This book denounces, with ferocious humor, a government to which he makes no secret of his opposition.” — Jacket copy (Mille et une nuits)
Learn more: Pius Njawé, Noted African Journalist, Dies at 53 (The New York Times)
O jornalismo como romance (Journalism as Romance)
By Nuno Rocha, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Portugal)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 1983
Recommended by: IPI staff
“This book includes a series of interviews and selected articles by Nuno Rocha (1933-2016). He also wrote several books, including works such as War in Mozambique: A Reporter in the Combat Zone or Journalism as a Novel: People and Landscapes.” — IPI staff.
Learn more: IPI World Press Freedom Hero Nuno Rocha dies at 83 (IPI)
Jasmine and the Sickle: 20 Years of Iranian Intelligentsia and the Security Forces
By Faraj Sarkohi, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Iran)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2002
Recommended by: IPI staff
“In this book, Faraj Sarkohi describes the story of his arrest and torture by IRI's intelligence ministry. In 1994, Sarkohi was one of the writers and intellectuals who signed the famous ‘Declaration of 134 Iranian Writers’, a petition calling on the Iranian government to end censorship and guarantee freedom of opinion and expression. After signing the petition, Sarkohi — as chief editor of the most important opposition publication — became the target of a relentless campaign of harassment by the authorities, who threatened, arrested, detained and tortured him on several occasions between 1994 and 1996.” — IPI Staff.
Learn more: Writing that risks and saves lives (The Guardian)
The Commissioner For Lost Causes
By Arun Shourie, 2000 Hero (India)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2022
Recommended by: IPI staff
“A comprehensive account of dramatic incidents like getting governments to swallow legislation against the press, unseating of chief ministers, a prime minister unspooling himself even as manoeuvres to unseat him are scotched, a deputy prime minister trying to dislodge colleagues with fabricated documents, people's movements ending up as rivulets in the sand, The Commissioner for Lost Causes discusses Shourie's innings, the calumny hurled at him, his dismissal, and his being recalled and removed again.” — Jacket copy (Viking)
Review: The Tribune
Hope for Rwanda
By André Sibomana, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Rwanda)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1999
Recommended by: IPI staff
“A Rwandan Catholic priest, journalist and leading human rights activist, André Sibomana was one of the very few independent voices to speak out against the abuses perpetrated by past and present governments in Rwanda. Hope for Rwanda is his personal testimony and the first major account by a Rwandan available in English of the events surrounding the 1994 genocide. In this book, Sibomana offers a personal reflection on the issues surrounding the genocide, as well as confronting many of the preconceptions and stereotypes that are evident in the West's portrayal of the genocide.” — Jacket copy (Pluto Press)
A Journalist, A General and An Army in Burma
By U Thaung, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Myanmar)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1995
Recommended by: IPI staff
“This is the chilling story of a people under military rule. As a Burmese journalist, the author worked under martial law and was jailed by the cunning and ruthless General Ne Win, Burma’s dictator. It is the chronicle of the stupidity and crimes of the Burmese Army and of, from an insider’s viewpoint, the misery and cruelties endured by 43 million enslaved Burmese people.” — Jacket copy (White Lotus)
Learn more: Journalist Kyemon U Thaung Dies in US Exile (The Irrawaddy)
Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number
By Jacobo Timerman, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Argentina)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 1981
Recommended by: IPI staff
"At two in the morning of April 15, 1977, twenty armed men in civilian clothes arrested Jacobo Timerman, editor and publisher of a leading Buenos Aires newspaper. Thus began thirty months of imprisonment, torture, and anti-Semitic abuse. . . . Unlike 15,000 other Argentines, 'the disappeared,' Timerman was eventually released into exile. His testimony [is] gripping in its human stories, not only of brutality but of courage and love; important because it reminds us how, in our world, the most terrible fantasies may become fact."— Jacket copy (University of Wisconsin Press).
Review: The New York Times
Muerte en el Pentagonito (Death in the little Pentagon)
By Ricardo Uceda, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Peru)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2004
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The military secrets of the fight against terrorism in Peru are revealed for the first time in a chilling narrative that transports the reader relentlessly through two decades of crimes and atrocities, on a journey through the dreaded secrets of the intelligence services. After more than seven years of research, the author offers revelations of extraordinary impact. Not only because they shed light on emblematic murders, but above all because they uncover other previously unknown deaths committed at the very headquarters of the Peruvian Army, commonly known as the Little Pentagon.” — Jacket copy (Planeta Perú)
As Long As Sarajevo Exists
By Kemal Kurspahić, 2000 World Press Freedom Hero (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1997
Recommended by: IPI staff
“When Serbian nationalist forces began their siege of Sarajevo, Kemal Kurspahic called together the editors, reporters and production staff of the city's main newspaper, Oslobodenje, and made a grim offer to those willing to work under relentless artillery, tank and sniper fire. Acting on their deepest beliefs, the reporters and editors of Oslobodenje (‘Liberation’) literally risked their lives for their readers and kept the daily paper of Sarajevo running against all odds. Representing hope to a population completely besieged, and upholding the ideals of tolerance, equal rights, and free debate, Oslobodenje was an early prime target of the Serb nationalists. Under constant artillery and mortar attack, and often without electricity and phone, the Oslobodenje was ‘the daily miracle of Sarajevo’. — Jacket copy (Pamphleteers Pr)
Learn more: IPI mourns the death of Bosnian editor Kemal Kurspahić (IPI)
Books written about IPI’s World Press Freedom Heroes
Words of Freedom: A Tribute to 60 IPI World Press Freedom Heroes
By the International Press Institute (Global)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 2010
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Words of Freedom: A Tribute to 60 IPI World Press Freedom Heroes, published by the International Press Institute (IPI) in Vienna, recounts the stories of sixty journalists who have made a mark for media freedom since 1997, when IPI honored its first ‘Press Freedom Hero’. The stories are a poignant reminder of the price journalists and others pay for oppression, a reminder that is needed in our western culture where discussions over freedom of the press seem to hinge on how far a paparazzi photographer can go in exposing the doings of the noted and the notorious.” — The Vienna Review
Review: The Vienna Review
The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic
By Mark L. Clifford (Hong Kong / USA) about 2025 World Press Freedom Hero 2025 Jimmy Lai (Hong-Kong)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2024
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The astonishing story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai who became one of Hong Kong’s leading activists for democracy and is today China’s most famous political prisoner. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was its most important target. Apple Daily was raided on August 10, 2020. He was arrested and held without bail before being convicted of trumped-up charges ranging from lighting a candle (“incitement to riot”) to violating a clause in his company’s lease (“fraud”).” — Jacket copy (Free Press)
Shireen Abu Akleh: Speaking Truth to Silence
By Mohamed El Bakkali (Morocco) and Hayat Al-Hariri (Lebanon)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2023
Recommended by: IPI staff
“In this book, published on the first anniversary of the devastating assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera Media Institute conducts a comprehensive analysis of the professional techniques Shireen Abu Akleh used in her reporting and demonstrates how she accurately and ethically depicted real-world events through her extensive field reports over a 25-year career with Al Jazeera. The book serves as a testimony to the high quality journalistic approach that Shireen always took towards reporting on human rights abuses, humanitarian crises, and the plights of those persecuted.” — Jacket copy (Al Jazeera Media Institute)
Learn more: Shireen Abu Akleh and Carlos Dada named 2022 IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Heroes (IPI)
A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl
By Mariane Pearl (France)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2003
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The journalist widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, discusses their family's commitment to responsible journalism, her own role as a negotiator between the FBI and Pakistani police, terrorism in today's world, and her efforts to promote understanding between cultures.” — Jacket copy (Scribner)
Learn more: Sad story of journalist Daniel Pearl becomes one of strength, character and hope (The Seattle Times)
Jana Klusáková a Jiří Dienstbier rozmlouvají nadoraz
By Jana Klusáková and George Dienstbier (Czech Republic)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1993
Recommended by: IPI staff
“This book features interviews with Czech politician and journalist Jiří Dienstbier, conducted in November and December of 1992, after he finished his role as Foreign Minister. The book focuses on aspects related to foreign policy, diplomacy, public service media, and reflections of the Velvet Revolution.” — Jacket copy (Primus)
Learn more: Jiri Dienstbier, helped toppled communist rule in Czechoslovakia, dies at 73
And Then They Came for Me: The Lasantha Wickrematunge Story
By Raine Wickrematunge (Sri Lanka)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2013
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Though Lasantha is only one amongst dozens of journalists who have disappeared or been killed, kidnapped or tortured in Sri Lanka within the last decade, he stood out prominently as one of journalism’s icons. Lasantha’s story is one of courage; a story of a man whose gutsy and fearless stance for what he believed in, never wavered, even in the face of grave threat. This then is the story of a man who lived, breathed and finally died in the pursuit of the truth. — Jacket copy (AuthorHouse UK)
Learn more: Sri Lanka’s Lasantha Wickrematunge named 53rd IPI World Press Freedom Hero (IPI)
Rudolf Augstein: Der Mann, der den SPIEGEL machte (Rudolf Augstein: The Man Who Made Spiegel)
By Peter Merseburger (Germany)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2009
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Rudolf Augstein, one of IPI’s 2000 Heroes, was one of Germany’s most famous and respected journalists. As the founder of the weekly news magazine, Der Spiegel — dubbed by Augstein the Sturmgeschütz der Demokratie (the heavy artillery of democracy) — his contribution to the defence and promotion of press freedom in Germany has been significant. Launched in the period immediately after World War II, the magazine quickly established itself as one of the country’s most important publications, uncovering numerous cases of government corruption and incompetence, many of them sending shockwaves through the country.” — Jacket copy (Pantheon Verlag)
Learn more: Rudolf Augstein (IPI)
Hubert Beuve-Méry
By Laurent Greilsamer (France)
Genre: Biography
Published: 1990
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Secret, shunning publicity, Hubert Beuve-Méry [a founding member of the International Press Institute] was above all a man of influence, scorning money and subservience to economic and political powers. As much a moralist as a journalist, Hubert Beuve-Méry, who signed his editorials ‘Siruis’, drew his inspiration from the Middle Ages of pioneering monks and from Péguy. He jealously cultivated his independence and, to better protect himself, refused to dine out, avoiding receptions and cocktail parties, and thoroughly refining a character from Alceste. But who knows the story of the founder of Le Monde? For the first time, this biography retraces the struggles of a leading daily newspaper editor vilified by the far left during the Liberation for his supposed Pétainism, and by the far right during the Cold War for his alleged crypto-communism.” — Jacket copy (Fayard)
Learn more: Hubert Beuve-Méry (IPI)
Tinta indeleble: Guillermo Cano, vida y obra (Indelible Ink: Guillermo Cano, Life and Work)
By Aguilar Anthologists (Colombia)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2012
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Guillermo Cano Ink, Life and Work is an essential book. Its pages, rich in history and stories, contain the spirit of one of the greatest global figures in journalism of the 20th century, Colombian Guillermo Cano Isaza (1925-1986). Why was nothing the same after Guillermo Cano's murder, neither in his family, nor at El Espectador, nor in journalism, nor in Colombian society? Guillermo Cano Isaza, in 42 years dedicated exclusively to the practice of journalism, displayed an exceptional ability to see the world in a drop of water.” — Jacket copy (Aguilar)
Learn more: 100 years of Guillermo Cano Isaza: honoring his memory, demanding justice (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights)
Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter
By Emily O'Reilly (Ireland)
Genre: Biography
Published: 1998
Recommended by: IPI staff
“On June 26, 1996, the Sunday Independent's crime reporter Veronica Guerin was shot dead by a motorcycle passenger as she waited at traffic lights on the outskirts of Dublin—the victim of her own crusading exposes of leading criminals. Her death profoundly shocked the country. The President attended her funeral, tributes were paid to her in parliament, and hundreds of bouquets of flowers were placed in her memory by members of the public. Within a month new anti-crime measures had been introduced and two of the leading murder suspects had fled the country. While Guerin was hailed as a heroine, the Sunday Independent denied any culpability in her death. Emily O'Reilly's book exposes the frightening moral bankruptcy of the media and the devastating consequences of this—for the individual and for society.” — Jacket copy (Random House UK)
Learn more: Man wanted in connection with 1996 murder of World Press Freedom Hero Veronica Guerin arrested
Júlio Mesquita e suo tempo (Júlio Mesquita and His Time)
By Jorge Caldeira (Brazil)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2015
Recommended by: IPI staff
“This book tells the story of the son of illiterate Portuguese immigrants, born in Campinas in 1862. Júlio Mesquita learned to read by chance, became involved in the abolitionist movement as a teenager, studied law, and, at the age of 26, in 1888, got a job at a newspaper with 904 subscribers. He made the company profitable and ended up buying O Estado de S. Paulo. In 1927, the year of his death, the newspaper had 48,600 subscribers — a growth of 10.5% over 40 years. This gripping narrative captures the multiple dimensions of an exceptional figure and the newspaper that helped transform Brazil into a modern nation.” — Jacket copy (Mameluco)
Learn more: Julio Mesquita Dies at 77; A Publisher in Sao Paulo (The New York Times)
Antonio Fontán: Una biografía política (Antonio Fontán: A Political Biography)
By Jaime Cosgaya García (Spain)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2020
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Few figures in recent Spanish history have inspired such unanimous support as Antonio Fontán Pérez (1923-2010). His conciliatory nature and the way he conducted himself in the academic, journalistic, and political spheres made him a figure of consensus, respected by broad sectors of opinion. This book delves into his public career using previously unpublished documentation — mostly from his personal archive — in an attempt to understand the Franco era and the transition to democracy.” — Jacket copy (EUNSA)
Learn more: A crusading editor who stood up to the fascists (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Profiles in Journalistic Courage
By Lisa DeLisle
Genre: Biography
Published: 2018
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Some of the bravest actions of journalists are unknown, obscured by the passage of time, hidden by veils of anonymity or buried by systematic repression. Profiles in Journalistic Courage corrects this imbalance. With few exceptions, the stories told in this collection are unfamiliar. A chapter on 2000 Hero Freedom Neruda (Cote d'Ivoire) tells the story of the journalist’s arrest, trial and sentencing to two years in prison by Ivorian officials for his journalistic work.” — Jacket copy (Routledge)
Books reviewed by IPI’s staff
A Death in Malta
By Paul Caruana Galizia (Malta)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2023
Recommended by: Damla Tarhan Durmuş, Turkey FOI project coordinator
“As someone who has dedicated years to advocating for journalists' rights, this book holds deep personal significance for me. Having started my first campaign with Daphne Caruana Galizia's case five years ago, this deeply moving work, written by her son Paul, resonates profoundly with my own journey. The book chronicles not only Daphne's fearless investigation into corruption and organized crime in Malta but also her tragic assassination in 2017 and her family's unwavering pursuit of justice. Through its pages, we witness the raw reality of investigative journalism's dangers and the ongoing threats to press freedom in Europe. For me, this narrative is more than a story — it's a powerful reminder of why I chose this path and continue to fight for journalists' rights. Daphne's legacy lives on, inspiring those who believe in journalism's power to transform society.” — Damla Tarhan Durmuş
Review: The Guardian
A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution
By Samar Yazbek (Syria)
Genre: Biography
Published: 2012
Recommended by: Zeyneb Gültekin, former IPI Turkey programme coordinator
“A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution is a vital account written between March 25 and July 9, 2011, capturing the human experiences behind the Syrian conflict as author Samar Yazbek transforms from novelist to journalist. Through her detailed daily accounts and interviews with protestors, she sheds light on the voices often silenced in the turmoil, offering a poignant and personal perspective on the struggle for freedom and dignity in Syria.” — Zeyneb Gültekin
Review: The Guardian
Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins
By Alex Tizon and Sam Howe Verhovek (The Philippines)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2019
Recommended by: Alina Cristea, IPI innovation projects officer
“With the world seemingly on the verge of collapse, I felt drawn back to where journalism is, to me, at its most powerful — building community, amplifying unheard voices, and showcasing the struggles and hopes of ordinary people. Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margin is a post-mortem collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Tizon’s finest work, a testament to his ability to bring depth and dignity to the stories of those often overlooked — whether because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, or other factors. Each essay is introduced by colleagues who worked with Tizon, offering brief but valuable storytelling insights, and making this collection not just moving but instructive as well.” — Alina Cristea
Review: Kirkus Reviews
Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives
By Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros (USA)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2023
Recommended by: Nicky Deluggi, IPI innovation project officer
“Navigating online spaces, we are constantly inundated with information — good, bad, and ugly. As distressing footage of violence and catastrophes increasingly makes its way onto our screens, Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives deep-dives into how exposure to online graphic content affects our minds and communities. Insights into the history and societal impact of iconic graphic imagery are combined with the most recent research about the harms and benefits of social media engagement. Through the experience of journalists, human rights investigators, social media moderators, neuroscientists and psychologists, readers will learn how to acknowledge and minimize the risk of psychological harm and to engage with graphic material more safely and productively.” — Nicky Deluggi
Review: Tech Policy Press
Our Women on the Ground
By Zahra Hankir (Lebanon)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 2019
Recommended by: Eero Lassila, former IPI Helsingin Sanomat Foundation Fellow
“This is a book about ultimate bravery and the ongoing fight for press freedom in the 21st-century Middle East. Our Women on the Ground presents a shaking depiction of crippling sexism and downtrodden human rights in the region. From Syria to Nepal and Saudi Arabia, nineteen renowned women reporters share their survival stories in the name of journalism with captivating storytelling.” — Eero Lassila
Review: Asian Review of Books
Taking Sides
By Sherine Tadros (UK)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2023
Recommended by: Dinara Satbayeva, IPI communications officer
“Taking Sides is the raw and quietly profound memoir of Sherine Tadros, a former Al Jazeera English and SkyNews reporter and current Amnesty International deputy director for advocacy. Recounting the Gaza War of 2008-2009, the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and uprisings in Libya and Yemen, Tadros shares a story of womanhood, family, and the pursuit of purpose beyond what she quotes as ‘an angry sound against injustice’.” — Dinara Satbayeva.
Hiroshima
By John Hersey (USA)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1946
Recommended by: Timothy Large, IPI director of independent media programmes
“Hiroshima, published in 1946, is an iconic work of narrative journalism. It epitomizes the power of an independent press to hold governments accountable by exposing uncomfortable truths. This was especially important in the post-war era when the U.S. government controlled most of the narrative around the atomic bombings. First published in The New Yorker magazine, Hersey's haunting portrayal of six survivors gets its extraordinary power from meticulous reporting combined with restrained prose. The result is to make an event that was often discussed in abstract terms devastatingly human and real. This is the book that made me want to become a journalist.” — Timothy Large.
Review: Esquire
Hitch-22
By Christopher Hitchens (USA)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2010
Recommended by: Oliver Money-Kyrle, IPI head of Europe advocacy
“Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes. He sees all sides of an argument. And he believes the personal is political. This is the story of his life, a life lived large.” — Oliver Money-Kyrle
Review: The Guardian
Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics
By Nanjala Nyabola (Kenya)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 2018
Recommended by: Marystella Simiyu, Africa Senior legal officer
“From the upheavals of recent national elections to the success of the #MyDressMyChoice feminist movement, digital platforms have already had a dramatic impact on political life in Kenya — one of the most electronically advanced countries in Africa. While the impact of the Digital Age on Western politics has been extensively debated, there is still little appreciation of how it has been felt in developing countries such as Kenya, where Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other online platforms are increasingly a part of everyday life. Written by a respected Kenyan activist and researcher at the forefront of political online struggles, this book presents a unique contribution to the debate on digital democracy.” — Marystella Simiyu.
Review: Oxfam
Pereira Maintains
By Antonio Tabucchi (Italy)
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1996
Recommended by: Beatrice Chioccioli, former IPI Europe advocacy officer
“Summer 1938. Against the backdrop of Lisbon and a Europe oppressed by the specters of totalitarian governments, a crime reporter-turned-culture columnist for a mediocre publication seems more passionate about French literature and omelets than the core of his craft — the pursuit of truth. Throughout the book, Pereira argues — whether in front of a Salazarist court judging his actions, his conscience, or history itself — how circumstances gradually led to his political awakening.” — Beatrice Chioccioli
Review: The Guardian
Media Pasts and Futures: Critical Reflections on Power Without Responsibility
By Des Freedman and Michael Klontzas (UK)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 2025
Recommended by: Dumitras Holdis, IPI Europe programme manager
“Des Freedom is one of the most interesting media scholars out there. This project is part of his longtime interest in power relations in society and how they are reflected in the field of journalism and media. This collection celebrates a seminal media manual, Power Without Responsibility, which has brought discussions around equity and democracy to the forefront in media studies. Both this and the reflections coordinated by Des Freedman and Michael Klontzas are well worth a read to anybody interested in thinking critically about the broader role of journalism in society and the solutions that support democratic forms of communication.” — Dumitras Holdis.
American Mother: A Life Reclaimed
By Diane Foley and Colum McCann (USA)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2025
Recommended by: Rowan Humphries, Global advocacy officer
“In late 2021 Diane Foley sat at a table across from Alexanda Kotey. A member of the ISIS group known as ‘The Beatles’, Kotey had pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, torture, and murder of her son, James Foley, seven years before. She asked the legendary writer Colum McCann to be there. American Mother moves back and forth in time as Foley recalls her son's determination to shed light on the plight of those caught up in the agonies of war; his harrowing months of captivity; and the days following his death. Channeling Foley's singular voice, McCann brings to life her shock, sadness, resolve, and astonishing hope in the face of an unthinkably altered life.” — Jacket copy (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Review: The Guardian
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country
By Patricia Evangelista (Philippines)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2023
Recommended by: IPI staff
“My job is to go to places where people die. I pack my bags, talk to the survivors, write my stories, then go home to wait for the next catastrophe. I don’t wait very long.” Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte. — Jacket copy (Random House).
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Disturbance: Surviving Charlie Hebdo
By Philippe Lançon (France)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2019
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Paris, January 7, 2015. Two terrorists who claim allegiance to ISIS attack the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The event causes untold pain to the victims and their families, prompts a global solidarity movement, and ignites a fierce debate over press freedoms and the role of satire today. Philippe Lançon, a journalist, author, and a weekly contributor to Charlie Hebdo is gravely wounded in the attack. This intense life experience upends his relationship to the world, to writing, to reading, to love and to friendship. As he attempts to reconstruct his life on the page, Lançon rereads Proust, Thomas Mann, Kafka, and others in search of guidance. It is a year before he can return to writing, a year in which he learns to work through his experiences and their aftermath. — Jacket copy (Europa Editions)
Review: The New York Times
438 Days
By Johan Persson & Martin Schibbye (Sweden)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2015
Recommended by: IPI staff
“On the eve of June 28th, 2011 Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson put everything at stake by illegally crossing the border from Somalia into Ethiopia. After months of research, planning and failed attempts, they were finally on their way to report on how the ruthless hunt for oil affected the population of the isolated and conflict-ridden Ogaden region. Five days later, they lay wounded in the desert sand, shot and captured by the Ethiopian army. But when their initial reportage died, another story began. A story about lawlessness, propaganda and global politics. This is their story of 438 days of hell.” — Jacket copy (Offside Press)
Learn more: Swedish journalists appear in Ethiopia court (IPI). The book was also made into a movie in 2019.
Murder the Truth
By David Enrich (USA)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2025
Recommended by: IPI staff
“In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of a growing threat to our modern democracy: the weaponization of the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists. With Trump’s emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump — the way it’s used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.” — Jacket copy (Mariner Books)
Review: The Guardian
Fahrenheit 451
By Ray Bradbury (USA)
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1953
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television ‘family’. But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.” — Jacket copy (Simon & Schuster)
1984
By George Orwell
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1949
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching. A startling and haunting novel, 1984 creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions — a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.” — Jacket copy (Signet classic, 75th anniversary edition)
War of Words: Memoir of a South African Journalist
By Benjamin Pogrund (South Africa)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2000
Recommended by: IPI staff
“When Benjamin Pogrund, one of South Africa's most distinguished journalists, first began his career as a young reporter in the 1950s, ‘there had been little reason at that stage to believe that anything revolutionary was about to start’. As the ‘African affairs reporter’, and then deputy editor, it was Pogrund who first brought the words of black leaders like Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela to the pages of South Africa's leading newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail. This was the period of apartheid in South Africa and for most of the next 30 years, the Rand Daily Mail was the country's liberal white voice against the tyranny of the Afrikaner Nationalist government. A riveting memoir and a complex commentary on apartheid and freedom of the press, War of Words offers an insider's perspective on one of the most turbulent, and arguably one of the most significant, periods in modern history.” — Jacket copy (Seven Stories Press)
Review: Nieman Reports
The Scandal of the Century: And Other Writings
By Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
Genre: Anthology
Published: 2018
Recommended by: IPI staff
“Late in his life, Gabriel García Márquez declared: ‘I don’t want to be remembered for One Hundred Years of Solitude, nor for the Nobel Prize, but rather for the newspaper. I was born a journalist… It’s in my blood.’ This selection offers a glimpse into the great novelist’s career as a reporter. Ranging from the early pieces he wrote while starting out in Colombia to his longer reportage from Paris and Rome and, later on, from Venezuela and Mexico, these 50 journalistic writings amply display the narrative gifts that made his reputation. The Scandal of the Century is a tribute to García Márquez’s dedication to the profession he believed to be ‘the best in the world’.” — Jacket copy (Vintage)
Learn more: The best job in the world: Gabriel García Márquez's speech before the IAPA in 1996 (Fundación Gabo, in Spanish)
All the Presidents' Men
By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (USA)
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: 1974
Recommended by: IPI staff
“The most devastating political detective story of the century: two Washington Post reporters, whose brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation smashed the Watergate scandal wide open, tell the behind-the-scenes drama the way it really happened. One of Time magazine’s All-Time 100 Best Nonfiction Books, this is the book that changed America. Published just months before President Nixon’s resignation, All the President’s Men revealed the full scope of the scandal and introduced for the first time the mysterious ‘Deep Throat’. Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing through headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward deliver a riveting firsthand account of their reporting. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post, toppled the president, and have since inspired generations of reporters.” — Jacket copy (Simon & Schuster)
Review: The New Yorker
Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life
By Caroline Moorehead (UK)