Since having mobility issues [crutches], I have engaged in a few projects more locally based. Including the ‘Nottingham Trent University B&W’ set. :: https://tinyurl.com/22mvwvm7 a work in progress.
Have just visited the NTU Observatory, and Dr D Brown was kind enough to show me the facilities there. I have made an edit of this afternoons work and have now added to the main project page at :: https://tinyurl.com/22mvwvm7
The image ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is a striking exercise in perspective, texture, and character. Through the use of a wide-angle lens—likely a fisheye—the photographer has created an intimate, almost intrusive portrait that challenges the traditional boundaries between the subject and the viewer.
Captured in monochrome, ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ leans heavily into the strengths of black-and-white photography: the play of light, the deep definition of shadows, and the exaggeration of physical form.
The Distortion of Intimacy
The most immediate characteristic of ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is the extreme barrel distortion caused by the wide-angle lens. This choice has several profound effects on the composition:
Proximity: The subject is physically very close to the lens. This creates a sense of forced intimacy, as if the viewer is leaning in to share a secret or a quiet moment with the man.
Facial Architecture: The distortion enlarges the central features—the nose, the spectacles, and the mustache—while the sides of the face and the surrounding environment appear to pull away. This gives the portrait a whimsical, almost caricatured feel, yet it remains deeply grounded in reality.
The Curvature of the World: On the right side of ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, the background foliage and trees bend inward. This framing creates a “globe” effect, making the subject appear as if he is the centre of his own small, private universe.
Texture and Light
In ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ , the lack of colour forces the eye to focus on the tactile qualities of the scene. The image is a masterclass in texture:
Human Texture: The fine lines around the eyes, the coarse hair of the mustache, and the subtle stubble on the chin are highlighted by the high-contrast lighting. Each wrinkle tells a story of age and experience.
Organic Texture: To the left, the rough, craggy bark of the tree trunk provides a hard, vertical anchor for the man’s head. To the right, the delicate, translucent leaves of the ivy catch the sunlight, providing a soft counterpoint to the man’s rugged features.
Light and Shadow: The light source appears to be coming from the upper right, casting a dramatic shadow of the man’s nose and glasses across his cheek. The shadow of the tree limb also falls across his temple, further integrating him into the natural environment.
The Subject’s Presence
Despite the technical distortion in ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, the subject’s humanity remains the focal point. There is a gentle kindness in his expression. His eyes, framed by thin-rimmed glasses, carry a hint of a smile that is mirrored in the slight upturn of his mouth beneath the mustache.
The man wears a cap and a hoodie, suggesting a casual, outdoor setting. He isn’t posing for a formal portrait; he seems to be simply existing in the woods, comfortable in his skin and his surroundings. This authenticity is what saves the image from being merely a technical experiment with a wide lens; it is a genuine character study.
Narrative Implications
When viewing ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, one cannot help but wonder about the man’s story. Is he a gardener, a hiker, or perhaps the photographer himself playing with a self-portrait? The choice of black and white strips away the distractions of the modern world, lending the image a timeless quality. It could have been taken yesterday or forty years ago.
The proximity of the tree to his head suggests a literal and metaphorical connection to nature. He isn’t just standing in front of the woods; he is tucked into them, framed by the ivy and supported by the bark.
Technical Execution
The choice of the Nikon D300s (as suggested by the filename 131201_D300s_080 BW.jpg) is notable. Even as older digital technology, the sensor captures a surprising amount of detail in the highlights and shadows. The “BW” designation in the file name emphasizes that the monochromatic transition was a deliberate artistic choice to focus on form over hue.
Conclusion
‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is an evocative photograph that turns a simple moment into a complex visual narrative. By using distortion to pull the viewer in rather than push them away, the photographer creates a rare sense of closeness. It celebrates the “imperfections” of the human face—the lines, the hairs, the unevenness—and elevates them through a lens that sees the world with both curiosity and warmth.
It is a reminder that even when the world is bent and distorted, there is a steady, smiling humanity at its centre.
Throughout the ’90s, the DiY Sound System put on countless free events, ran a recording studio and two record labels, and took their hedonistic parties around the world. Here, Harold Heath speaks to co-founder Harry Harrison about his new book, Dreaming in Yellow: The Story of the DiY Sound System, and the collective’s trailblazing legacy in the free party movement
The origins of DiY Sound System date back to a mid-‘80s England that was a very different place to how it is in 2022. In many ways it was an England that was freer than today: you could still squat properties, still claim the dole while learning to play an instrument or put on parties, and the country was still host to a teeming underground of free festivals.
However, the Conservative government had also brutally smashed the miners’ strike, embarked on a post-colonial war in the Falklands and overseen record unemployment levels, while Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared that “there’s no such thing as society”. It was into this harsh political context that DiY was born: a high-impact collision between the British radical, anti-establishment culture of squatters, anarcho-punks, travellers and free-partiers and the birth of UK acid house.
As we chat over Zoom, DiY co-founder Harry Harrison, now a genial, laidback father of two living in Wales, is full of brilliant stories and joie de vivre as he happily recalls his role in some of the most revolutionary events in recent British cultural history. “We were in the right place at the right time,” he says. “It was the end of the free festival scene, that last gasp of Stonehenge and anarcho-punk, when Glastonbury was lawless — the world was very different then. And I think we saw ourselves as promoting that lawlessness but using acid house as the perfect weapon.”
The free festival scene Harrison refers to has largely disappeared, but throughout the ‘80s there was a calendar of outdoor free events, mainly attended by so-called ‘new age’ travellers, hippies, punks, post-punks, ‘crusties’, squatters and others on the fringes of society. It was a fiercely anti-establishment subculture and one that Harrison and co. soon came into contact with via the Nottingham squat and house party scene.
“We hung out with a load of anarcho-punks and they were hardcore, serious poly-drug users,” he recalls. “They were messy as fuck, but they also organised loads of benefits for the miners. And we were into animal rights too, so we smashed a few butcher shop windows, went hunt-sabbing for a few years, all those kinds of anarcho-politics. Then we went to free festivals at 16, 17 and it just blew my mind.”
That punk ethos would feed directly into the character of DiY, creating a unique take on the rave template that put community, freedom and non-profit at the heart of what they did. “That’s why we were called DiY,” continues Harrison, “it’s a punk thing: it’s don’t listen, don’t vote, don’t take any shit, do it yourself, learn three chords and form a band, but instead of learn three chords it was buy some decks, get a soundsystem.”
Harrison became an enthusiastic attendee of the free party scene. “We went to a festival near Blackburn in probably ’83 and there was a chalk board that said ‘Line of speed 50p, Line of coke a quid, Mushrooms £2.50! We were like, ‘Wow, when does the music stop?’ and they were like, ‘It never stops, it goes from Friday to Tuesday’. Unfortunately, the music was a bit shit, it was Hawkwind and stuff, God bless them and all that but it wasn’t happening. But then acid house crossed with the free festival movement, that was where we were at and we were instrumental in it.”
“Everyone at our gigs got 75 quid with a 20 quid ‘nipper bonus’ if you had kids. Everyone got the same, the lighting guy, the sound guy, the DJs, and if they didn’t like it they could fuck off and go and DJ somewhere else. We had our major DJs but they all lugged the gear at the end of the night”
By the time Harrison, along with Pete ‘Woosh’ Birch (who sadly passed away in 2020), Richard ‘Digs’ Down and Simon DK formed the DiY collective in 1989, they’d already been into house music for a few years. “The one thing we had in Nottingham was DJ Graeme Park,” says Harrison, “who was playing house at the Garage from ‘87 onwards. We started going there every Saturday, that was my first experience of house music.” The DiY collective included engineers and sound crew as well as DJs, and they put together their own custom-built soundsystem and began putting on free parties.
DiY’s anti-establishment stance remained solid for as long as they functioned as a unit. While the mid-‘90s saw the rise of the superclub and the gradual encroachment of capital into dance music, DiY remained resolutely underground, alternative, and committed to an egalitarian vision of the disco, one that was reflected in how they dealt with money. “What I’m most proud of is that we were a collective,” says Harrison. “Everyone at our gigs got 75 quid with a 20 quid ‘nipper bonus’ if you had kids. Everyone got the same, the lighting guy, the sound guy, the DJs, and if they didn’t like it they could fuck off and go and DJ somewhere else. We had our major DJs but they all lugged the gear at the end of the night.”
DiY’s free parties began in summer 1990. They were mostly small affairs at first because, as Harrison recalls, most people on the free festival/ traveller scene still weren’t into house music at this point. Every weekend over winter 1990 the DiY crew were in the south-west of England, where the travellers were, putting on their free house music parties. Harrison remembers a particular event in the free festival calendar at Chipping Sodbury at the end of May 1991 as a major turning point. Up until then, soundsystems playing dance music were looked down upon by many of the traveller and crusty crew, but for the first time, the festival was all sound systems and no bands.
“It was getting bigger and bigger, you could feel it growing,” continues Harrison, “and instead of sound systems getting shit, being told to fuck off into the corner because ‘that’s not proper music’, suddenly there was this force of numbers, suddenly there were thousands of young people there.”
“The government were already a bit pissed off about raves, but Castlemorton really blew the gaff”
Momentum continued to grow over the winter of ’91 and then came the first big event of 1992: the Avon Free Festival at Castlemorton common. It’s difficult to imagine now, a five-day-long completely free festival/rave, attended by tens of thousands of party-goers, with the authorities powerless to act against it. An estimated 20-50,000 attendees — nobody seems able to agree on the numbers — turned up to the biggest illegal rave in UK history in the shadows of the Malvern Hills and partied over a very long weekend.
“The sun shone for the entire five days,” remembers Harrison, “I’ve never seen British weather like it. God was definitely on our side… And no one really organised it. There we no flyers, mobile phones, it just came together organically. You could never recreate it now, it was just unique, it was our generation’s Woodstock. We set up on the Thursday night and we didn’t finish till Tuesday.”
Castlemorton is an event that has since gone down in history, its ripples felt for years afterwards. It marked the beginning of the end of the ‘new age’ traveller lifestyle and of illegal outdoor raves via the Tories’ Criminal Justice Bill a couple of years later. As Harrison says, “The government were already a bit pissed off about raves, but Castlemorton really blew the gaff. That was May 1992 and at the Tory party conference in September, [senior Conservative] Michael Howard said he planned to introduce legislation to make things like raves illegal — and the Criminal Justice Act was made law in November ’94.”
DiY were unique among the soundsystems at Castlemorton in that they played deep house rather than the hard techno that was adopted by many other UK travelling sounds like Spiral Tribe. “Castlemorton was nine soundsystems and I went to all of them and the music was just a nightmare!” says Harrison. “It was just appalling, nosebleed techno, 160 beats per minute! As well as house, we played John Coltrane, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy. People came to our tent and stayed for two days, it saved their sanity. Because we really believed in the music. I guess we really believed in the ecstasy as well but you can’t really say that anymore… But there’s something sacred that happens when you get the right people, the right music, the right drugs in the right place — it just doesn’t get any better than that.”
“We did some properly mad shit that makes me shudder when I look back, it was so reckless and lawless… I look back now in my mid-fifties and just think, ‘Wow’”
Harrison’s role in the collective, after an aborted attempt at DJing (“I couldn’t be arsed: too difficult, too expensive, too serious!”) was as organiser, galvaniser and promoter. It’s an essential job in the success of every UK underground party: the facilitator, that one mate with a big personality who by default ends up putting on events, the larger-than-life member of your crew who makes things happen.
“I was the brains!” he laughs. “The gobshite! At the height of our fame around ’93, ’94 we had 13 or 14 DJs and my job was to herd the cats. I was the organiser. We were a collective but I also thought in a Stalinist way that if I don’t DJ I can kind of control things. I guess I was the strategist, the organiser, promoter, gobshite and money launderer!”
Because of their music policy, DiY were uniquely placed to take their free party ethos outside the traditional UK free festival circuit. As Harrison says, “We played Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza six weeks after Castlemorton, that was the unique thing about us. We were part of the Balearic scene, the crusty scene, the club scene, the soundsystem scene. There’s no way Spiral Tribe are going to play at Cafe Del Mar and there’s no way that Brandon Block is going to play at Castlemorton, so that was our unique selling point I guess.”
DiY also ran their successful club night Bounce for five years till the late ‘90s. They toured the country and built a network of Bounce events in major UK cities, their legal endeavours partly subsidising the illegal parties. They also took their events to places like Paris, Ibiza and Amsterdam, to Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas in the US and to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
And then there were the record labels. DiY put out a strong album in ’93 on Warp Records called ‘Strictly 4 Groovers’ before launching their Strictly 4 Groovers label in the same year. It ran till ’98 when it was replaced by DiY Discs. The Strictly 4 Groovers label featured beautiful mid-‘90s deep house like Crime’s ‘Rhythm Graffiti’ EP, To-Ka’s ‘Keep Pushing’ and ‘Good Together’ by Charles Webster and Pippa Jones as South Central, as well as music from members of DiY. DiY Discs continued in a similar vein with a series of deep releases from artists including Plej, Atjazz, Rhythm Plate, Stacey Kidd and Digs, Woosh and Mr Ski, building a reputation for high-quality underground house music.
However, nothing is static, certainly not in the wild world of clubbing, DJing and promoting. Over the last few years, the crew have met up and put on occasional events, making it all the way to their 25th and then 30th anniversary celebrations, but by the late ‘90s, Harrison says the DiY collective was “Fluctuating — there was quite a lot of addiction, quite a lot of mess, quite a lot of people moving, raising kids and so on…” Perhaps inevitably, real life had begun to infiltrate the dream world of the idealistic DiY. Gradually, parts of the collective moved on and went their separate ways.
Harrison originally wrote the first chapter of what became Dreaming in Yellow 20 years ago and was offered a publishing deal, but abandoned the project. “I’ve been waiting 20 years to write this,” he says. “I started it in ’98 when I had loads of time and no discipline. Then I had two kids and I had loads of discipline and no time.” He eventually finished it, fitting the writing around his job and family and it was speedily snapped up by Velocity Press.
“I just think it’s a fantastic story. We had some right scrapes, some outrageous behaviour, some truly moving moments: it’s just a fucking great story. DiY just never said no. It’s in the book but the core four of us, Digs and Woosh, Simon DK and myself, we did some properly mad shit that makes me shudder when I look back, it was so reckless and lawless. We smashed some police Range Rovers out of the way at a free festival in 1991… I look back now in my mid-fifties and just think, ‘Wow’.
It’s also a historically important story. I get emails every few months from sociology students who want to write about parties and protest in the ‘90s and need a quote. And I’ve not read anything yet that’s properly documented the sheer hedonism of the ‘90s.”
Looking back, now that the dust has well and truly settled on what Harrison refers to as “the intense battleground of the early ‘90s”, DiY’s legacy is perhaps clearer to see. They were a vital link between the traveller/‘crustie’ free parties and the wave of acid house hedonism that swept the country in the late ‘80s. DiY championed collectivism, celebrating the centrality of the group over the individual, pioneering a radically egalitarian approach to parties, where the power of music could change lives.
They set a standard, in terms of their music policy and the quality of their soundsystem but also in their not-for-profit approach — an approach that totally epitomised the very best of the UK house scene. “I meet people now and they say, ‘I came to one of your parties; it changed my life’. Still to this day. I think that’s our legacy,” says Harrison. “The music was vitally important; we thought we could change the world through house music and ecstasy. Maybe we did.”
New footage has been added for the 2026 screening of the film
Photo credit: Michelle Miles, Free Party: A Folk History
The ’90s rave documentary, Free Party: A Folk History, will be available to stream very soon.
The film, which premiered online last May, will be available to watch for 30 days from 21st May through the Eventive platform, and is expected to land on mainstream streaming platforms later this year. New footage has been added for this 2026 version.
Pre-order a stream of Free Party: A Folk History here. A portion of proceeds from the streaming release will be donated to Refugee Community Kitchen, as well to contributors who helped with compiling the archive footage. Remaining profits will go toward future projects.
As well as featuring trailblazing free party collectives such as Spiral Tribe, Circus Warp, and Nottingham’s DiY Sound System, the film packs in never-before-seen footage and socio-political history.
Read our Q&A with Free Party: A Folk History filmmaker Aaron Trinder here.
IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!! After 7½ years in the making — Free Party: A Folk History is going out into the world. 🌍 On May 21st — timed to begin around the 34th anniversary of Castlemorton — we’re launching a 30-day pre-release streaming event via Eventive, running through to the Summer Solstice on June 21st. Pre-sales are open NOW 👉 link in bio We’ve screened 150+ times at festivals worldwide, picked up multiple awards, had incredible support from the Observer, Mixmag, DJ Mag, BBC 6 Music and Irvine Welsh calling it “one of the most important films ever made” — and we’ve done all of it with zero industry backing. Part of any profits from streaming will go to Refugee Community Kitchen and the archive contributors who made this film what it is. Other profits will go towards our next independent film projects. Independent films such as ours are increasingly under threat, as the industry is only interested in commercial documentaries these days, so every share, every recommendation, every conversation is what keeps independent film alive — so please, spread the word 🙏 Thank you for being part of this, your support has meant so much over the years and, well.. It’s been a very long old journey.
Tonight :: Friday 8th May, I am contributing to the Questions and Answers about the film and scene, after the showing …. please come if you can.
Bonington theatre Arnold Leisure Centre High Street Arnold Nottingham NG5 7EE
7.00pm on Friday 8th May
Free Party: A Folk Historyis a major new, independently made, feature documentary following the birth of the free party movement in the late 80s and early 90s and the impact it’s had on our present times. The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.
This portrait captures a young man in a moment of quiet confidence, rendered in a monochrome palette that emphasizes texture, lighting, and personality over colour. The photograph is a study in contemporary urban style, utilizing a shallow depth of field to keep the viewer’s focus entirely on the subject’s expression and attire.
Composition and Lighting
The image is a tight head-and-shoulders portrait. The photographer has chosen a slightly high angle, which allows the brim of the subject’s hat to cast a distinct, geometric shadow across the upper half of his face. This shadow bisects the composition, creating a high-contrast interplay between the brightly lit lower face and the shaded eyes.
The lighting appears to be natural and directional, likely from the sun positioned to the side and slightly behind the subject. This creates a rim light effect on the right side of his face (from the viewer’s perspective) and highlights the subtle textures of his skin, including freckles and the fine detail of his facial hair.
Stylistic Elements
The subject’s attire serves as a significant focal point, signaling a specific cultural and fashion-forward identity.
The Headwear: He wears a black snapback-style cap featuring the word “DOPE” in large, 3D embroidered white letters. This brand choice is central to the image’s visual impact, as the stark white embroidery pops against the darker tones of the hat and background. The text is rendered in a thick, textured satin stitch that catches the light.
The Piercing: A small, reflective dermal piercing or stud is visible on his upper left cheekbone. This small detail catches a glint of light, adding a point of sharp focus and personal flair to his appearance.
Layering: He is wearing a white crew-neck undershirt layered beneath a dark, textured hoodie. The contrast between the clean lines of the white shirt and the soft, fleece-like texture of the hoodie adds depth to the lower third of the frame.
Expression and Mood
The subject’s expression is one of subtle warmth. He isn’t offering a wide, performative grin; instead, he has a gentle, closed-mouth smile that reaches his eyes. Despite the shadow cast by the hat, his eyes remain visible and engaging, suggesting a sense of openness and self-assurance.
The choice of a black-and-white (or sepia-toned) finish strips away the distractions of color, forcing the viewer to engage with the form and texture. It gives the image a timeless, documentary quality, reminiscent of street photography that seeks to capture the “authentic” spirit of an individual within their environment.
Technical Details and Texture
The photograph exhibits a high level of detail, likely captured with a professional-grade lens. You can see:
The individual threads and weave of the embroidery on the hat.
The grain and texture of the hoodie’s fabric.
The fine “stubble” of a goatee and mustache.
The subtle imperfections and natural variations in the skin’s surface.
The background is heavily blurred (bokeh), which is a deliberate choice to isolate the subject. This technique ensures that nothing—neither the street nor other people—competes with the young man for the viewer’s attention.
Conclusion
This image is a powerful example of modern portraiture. It balances the “loud” branding of the “DOPE” hat with the quiet, understated personality of the man wearing it. It captures a specific moment in urban fashion while maintaining a focus on the human element, resulting in a portrait that feels both personal and representative of a broader contemporary aesthetic.
I am contributing to the Questions and Answers about the film and scene, after the showing …. please come if you can.
Bonington theatre Arnold Leisure Centre High Street Arnold Nottingham NG5 7EE
7.00pm on Friday 8th May
Free Party: A Folk Historyis a major new, independently made, feature documentary following the birth of the free party movement in the late 80s and early 90s and the impact it’s had on our present times. The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.
The theme of World Press Freedom Day 2026 is ‘Shaping a Future at Peace’.
Strong and independent journalism helps to promote and uphold peace, human rights, and social and economic development through providing access to reliable information, scrutinising power, and fostering dialogue. However, according to analysis by UNESCO, press freedom around the world has experienced its steepest decline since 2012, with journalists facing increasing levels of attacks and restrictions in their work.
This week, the NUJ published findings from the first year of its Safety Tracker, revealing disturbing reports of journalists facing death and rape threats, racism, physical attacks and intimidation while carrying out their work. The data also highlighted a worrying pattern of violent, graphic abuse directed at women journalists as well as cases involving discrimination based on protected characteristics, including race and religion. Despite the very serious nature of the reports submitted to the tracker, few respondents had informed the police, their employer, or local MP, suggesting that abuse and harassment have to an extent become normalised or seen as part and parcel of working in journalism. The NUJ has, however, called for urgent action from the government, police, social media companies, and employers to stamp out abuse against journalists in all its forms.
Another issue has been the rise of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) – abusive legal threats and lawsuits filed to silence critical speech. Numerous journalists and media organisations have been hit with baseless legal claims, draining already stretched resources and time. The mere risk of being hit with a SLAPP can potentially cause outlets to self-censor, limiting the ability of journalists to speak truth to power. The NUJ, as part of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, has been calling on the UK government to use the upcoming King’s Speech to introduce effective and comprehensive provisions to stop SLAPPs. This week, more than 100 peers backed the calls for new legislation in a letter to UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
We may now be seeing a new form of SLAPP-style intimidation developing. Last week, the NUJ criticised the ‘highly unusual’ decision of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to pursue £15,000 in costs against journalist and NUJ member Barnie Choudhury, following claims he acted unreasonably in making FOI requests.
Internationally, it’s one of the most dangerous times to be a reporter working on the frontline. Annual figures published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) show that 128 journalists and media workers were killed in 2025. A similar number – 122 – was recorded the previous year. Despite journalists’ status as civilians under the Geneva Convention, the data showed a high concentration of deaths in conflict zones, particularly in the Middle East. Almost half of the deaths in 2025 were in Gaza, with 56 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed. At least 235 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since 7 October 2023. The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists by Israeli forces has continued. Last week, Lebanese journalist Amal Khalili was killed and her colleague Zeinab Faraj injured, whilst reporting on previous attacks on the village of al-Tayri. The IFJ data shows a large number of journalists were killed in other conflict zones last year, including Yemen, Ukraine, and Sudan. It also revealed a sobering picture globally in relation to journalists’ freedom to report with 533 journalists jailed at the end of 2025, many in the Asia-Pacific region.
The NUJ has backed the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in urging governments to finally end clear violations of international law and to support a specific and binding UN Convention on the safety and protection of journalists. This would place a requirement on states to protect journalists in all circumstances, investigate every crime, and prosecute the perpetrators.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said:
“This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme on shaping a future of peace provides a hopeful message. Journalists play a vital role in providing reliable, trustworthy information people can trust, holding those in power to account, and enhancing democracy and social cohesion.
“But those benefits can only be unlocked if journalists are able to do their jobs without the threat of being abused, censored, or killed. The NUJ will continue to campaign and fight alongside sister unions in the IFJ to protect journalists and defend press freedom in the UK, Ireland, and around the world.
“The NUJ also pays tribute to all the journalists who lost their lives in pursuit of truth, and recommits to standing up for the right of journalists to report safely and freely wherever they are.”
The NUJ, led by Laura Davison and joint president Gerry Curran, will attend an event in Paris this evening to mark World Press Freedom Day ahead of the IFJ’s centenary Congress from 4-7 May.
Today is World Press Freedom Day – a day to uphold press freedom as a fundamental right, to assess the state of press freedom throughout the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to honour journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
In 2025, a record 129 journalists were killed worldwide, more than in any other year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data over three decades ago. This is the second consecutive year-on-year record for press deaths. Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in both 2024 and 2025, making Gaza the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. This sharp increase comes amid escalating conflicts, rising authoritarianism, and political turmoil that continue to endanger journalists worldwide. Many more journalists face threats of violence and imprisonment for simply doing their job.
Pictured here are the names of more than 1,700 journalists who have been killed in connection with their work since 1992. This Memorial for Journalists, displayed at the flagship World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, was created in collaboration with ‘A Safer World for the Truth’, an initiative led by Free Press Unlimited in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). It commemorates and honors journalists who dedicated their lives to the public interest and the right to information.
In an era of widespread political polarization, shrinking press freedom, and global misinformation, we champion the right of journalists to access information and report safely. Ensuring that accurate, diverse, and high-quality visual storytelling continues to thrive is essential to deepening public understanding of the world’s most pressing issues. Journalists must be protected—not targeted—for the vital work they do.
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Nadia Whittome MP speech disrupted by the RCP at MayDay, Nottingham
Nottingham, this mayday, we are standing together against the far right. A far right that threatens everything that we hold dear. Our sense of community. Our human rights. Our workers’ rights. Not only did every single Reform MP vote against the Employment Rights Act. But they said they’d repeal it in their great repeal bill. That bill would legalise fire and rehire. It would reverse changes to bereavement leave, to sick pay and pregnancy protections. It would also scrap the Renters’ Rights Act, bringing back no-fault evictions and allowing landlords to hike rents year on year. And it would rip up the Equality Act. This is a bonfire of rights. If you’re a woman, or you’re an ethnic minority, or you’re LGBT or disabled, if you rent, if you work for a living, if you rely on public services, if you are part of the 99%, not the 1%, reform is not on your side. Nigel Farage is banking on people seeing through the tight and the flat cap so he can distract and divide us by scapegoating minorities and blaming them for the deep structural problems in our society. But we know that it wasn’t migrants, or Muslims, or trans kids, or whoever they go after next, who cut our public services, who stole off our public utilities and our council housing, who bled our councils and our communities dry. It was right-wing Conservative governments cut from the same cloth as reform. Not even cut from the same cloth. Some of them are literally the same people, the same Tory ministers, like Robert Jenrick, who are directly responsible for this stuff. Reform tried to divide us so we don’t stand up and fight for ourselves and for each other. And so they can exist, so they can do what they exist to do, which is to represent the super wealthy. Their multi-millionaire donors don’t want to solve those deep structural problems in our society. They’re part of the class that created those problems. They profit from them and they want to rig the economy to make exploitative landlords, bosses and corporations even more powerful than they already are. But there is hope. It is solidarity with one another. No matter who we are or where we come from, that can defeat this darkness. And we only need to look around us to find hope in struggle. In Birmingham, BIM workers refusing to accept a race to the bottom on their pay and conditions. Across the country, resident doctors striking for pay restoration that was stripped under austerity. And here in Nottingham, university staff continually striking over job losses and course closures. Solidarity with them. These are just a few examples of the brave workers who are standing up against their employers. And I am proud to stand with them every time because I am a proud representative of the trade union and labour movement. We also draw inspiration from those who have been fighting for far longer. Like the all three campaigners who are still demanding accountability and justice. The mine workers pension campaigners who refused to accept that their pensions were being stolen and have recently won a historic victory. The point that I really want to make is this. Throughout history, our rights have not been gifted to us by any government. They have been fought for and won from the bottom up by movements built by people. Movements that became too powerful for governments to ignore. That is what we need to do now. We need to demand better and we need to challenge for our rights with a political programme of genuine hope. One that heals the vies and builds a future worth inheriting. I know it feels bleak right now. I feel it too. But we have to keep turning our despair into action. And together we can win and we must win. Solidarity.
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Chris T, National Union of Journalists, Nottingham
Thank you everyone. It does feel slightly odd to be the one up here rather than the one taking the photographs. Yeah, it’s a chance for all of you to get your own back. 128 journalists were killed in 2025. 128 workers who went out one day and never came home. The overwhelming majority of these victims were deliberately targeted by fascist and far-right governments. 56 journalists were killed by the Israeli government in Palestine alone. And another 16 killed by Israel in the wider region. But Israel is not the only one committing war crimes. Because of the news blackout, we don’t know how many of the 30,000 people killed by the Iranian regime in January were journalists. In Sudan, seven journalists were killed by government forces, and across Central and South America, journalists have been killed by corrupt police and drug cartels. In Ukraine, Putin’s forces have adopted a new tactic and killed six journalists in drone strikes far behind the front line. The massive increase in the number of journalists being murdered should be of no surprise in a world where governments are increasingly moving to the far right. Journalists have always been on the front line against fascism because fascists never want people to know what they are doing. Fascists don’t want the public to see the corruption, the brutality, and the mindless violence which are essential ingredients of fascism. But fascism never starts with air strikes and assassinations. Fascism doesn’t start with arrests, like the arrests of over 80 journalists in Turkey in 2025. And fascism doesn’t even start with violent attacks on journalists covering political protests, like the 32 attacks on journalists in the UK in 2025 recorded by my own union, the National Union of Journalists. Where fascism starts is with politicians trying to avoid scrutiny. Politicians who don’t want voters to see the reality of their fake promises and hypocritical behaviour. Politicians like Reform’s leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Mick Barton, who banned local journalists after an unflattering news story was published. The journalists he banned were part of a scheme, paid for by your tax-pay, called the Local Democracy Reporters, whose very purpose is to provide free and neutral reporting of local councils. Thanks to the work of local journalists, local press, and the National Union of Journalists, Reform backed down in the face of legal threats. However, be in no doubt that Nigel Farage wants to copy the paedophile in Washington who has expelled journalists from the White House briefing room. So hear me, when I say the National Union of Journalists stands with each and every one of you in the fight against the far right. This is not just a matter of self-preservation. The trans people the far-right target work alongside us in the newsroom. The migrants the far-right target live on our streets. The disabled people they target are in our homes. In the fight against fascism, there is no difference between the workplace and the street because fascism is not a political issue. It is a fight for the very foundation of our society and journalists will.
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Federal agents push photographer John Abernathy to the ground, pepper spray running down his face, during a Minnesota protest in January.AP Photo/John Locher, File
For years, World Press Freedom Day on May 3 has helped spotlight global press freedom violations. It’s a day to demand justice for journalists murdered in Gaza and Lebanon, or to celebrate the release of wrongfully detained reporters like Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.
Holding foreign regimes accountable for press freedom is essential. But this year, the U.S. needs to take a hard look in the mirror, too.
Since last year’s World Press Freedom Day, our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of press freedom violations in the United States, the equivalent of more than one per day. Taken together, these incidents are evidence of an unprecedented, coordinated assault on press freedom being led by the highest levels of our government.
From the streets of Minneapolis to the halls of the Pentagon, the Trump administration is dismantling the First Amendment right to gather and report the news.
Criminalizing the messenger
The majority of press freedom incidents cataloged by the Tracker since last May 3 are of journalists being assaulted and arrested while covering protests.
Most reporters arrested at demonstrations have their charges dropped later. But not journalists Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Junn Bollman. They now face bogus charges under federal prosecution for engaging in obviously constitutionally protected reporting while covering a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church in January.
They’re not the only journalists being prosecuted for covering anti-immigration enforcement protests in Minnesota. Photographer John Abernathy — who was pictured tossing his camera to another photographer to protect it, while being surrounded and arrested by federal agents at a different protest in a Minneapolis suburb last January — is also facing federal criminal charges.
Targeting routine reporting
Outside the context of protests, multiple federal agencies are also trying to redefine routine journalism as wrong or illegal.
Perhaps most notoriously, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to ban reporters from the Pentagon unless they signed what amounts to a loyalty pledge promising not to ask sources for information. Even after a court said the ban (and a subsequent rewrite) was unconstitutional, the government continues to fight for the right to exclude reporters who aren’t interested in acting as Pentagon stenographers.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi have tried to chill reporting by accusing journalists of “doxxing” or fomenting violence against federal immigration agents by naming them or photographing them in public. They’ve threatened to prosecute CNN for reporting on an ICE-watching app and coerced app stores into removing that software, a clear violation of the Constitution.
At the FBI, Director Kash Patel launched a retaliatory “stalking” investigation into New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson because Williamson did her job: reaching out to Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Wilkins to ask for a comment on reporting that Patel was using government resources on Wilkins’ behalf. Even the Department of Justice thought that was too much, concluding there was no legal basis for the investigation of Williamson.
The Trump administration is also moving aggressively to shut down journalists’ relationships with their sources.
In January, the FBI raided the home of Washington Post journalist Hannah Natanson, the “federal government whisperer” who’d written about the hundreds of her confidential sources from within the government. When the agency asked a court for the search warrant allowing the raid, the government purposefully omitted any mention of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that prohibits such raids in almost all circumstances.
More recently, the DOJ used the Espionage Act to charge Courtney Williams, a former Army employee who spoke to reporter Seth Harp about sexual harassment and discrimination in the military. Like most Espionage Act cases involving reporters and sources, this case doesn’t seem to be about national security. It’s about hiding government misconduct by retaliating against journalists and sources who expose it.
In other words, the U.S. is rapidly joining the ranks of the world’s worst press freedom offenders.
But it’s not too late to fight back.
Newsrooms can sue over press freedom violations and win. Lawmakers can reform the Espionage Act and Privacy Protection Act, and pass a federal shield law protecting journalists and their sources. Journalists can and should write and speak out about press freedom violations. The public can take action to demand that the Trump administration stop treating the First Amendment like a suggestion.
The United States can’t lead the world in defending press freedom on World Press Freedom Day when it’s actively dismantling it at home. It’s time to stop asking the Trump administration to respect the First Amendment. We need to use the courts, Congress, and the power of the people to force it.
An ongoing diary of stuff, allsorts, and things wot happen ……
I am a photographer with a special interest to document the lives of travelling people and those attending Festivals, Stonehenge etc, what the press often describe as ‘New Age Travellers’ and many social concerns.
With my photography, I have tried to say something of the wide variety of people engaged in ‘Alternatives’, and youths’ many sub-cultures and to present a more positive view.
I have photographed many free and commercial events and have, in recent years, extended my work to include dance parties (’rave culture’), gay-rights events, environmental direct actions, and protest against the Criminal Justice Act and more recently, issues surrounding the Global Capitalism.
Further, police surveillance has recently become a very important subject for me!
In recognition of this work, received a ‘Winston’ from Privacy International, at the 1998 ‘Big Brother’ Awards. The citation reads: “Alan Lodge is a photographer who has spent more than a decade raising awareness of front-line police surveillance activities, particularly the endemic practice of photographing demonstrators and activists”.
I am based in Nottingham, UK.
Quotes & Thoughts
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!!”
Harry Lime [Orsen Wells] The Third Man 1949
“Civilization will not attain to its perfection, until the last stone from the last church, falls on the last priest.”
Emile Zola
“….I have an important message to deliver to all the cute people all over the world.
If you’re out there and you’re not cute, maybe you’re beautiful, I just want to tell you somethin’- there’s more of us ugly mother-fuckers than you are, hey-y, so watch out now…”
Frank Zappa
