Over the years, press freedom in sport has been a recurring subject for Play the Game. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Play the Game has put together a compilation of articles that look into some of challenges that sports journalists face in their line of work and discuss sports journalism in broader terms.

If it were not for the courageous investigative journalists around the world relentlessly pursuing the truth, some of the most infamous cases of doping, match-fixing, bribery and corruption in sport might never have seen the light of day.

What is sports journalism for? Are sports journalists a part of the fourth estate or merely a fan club? In this article from The Conversation, David Rowe discusses the role of sports journalism in the light of the number of recent hits to the reputation of sport.

Sports journalism focuses almost exclusively on results, tournaments and top athletes. According to new research on sports coverage in 80 newspapers from 22 countries presented at the Play the Game conference, sports politics and economic issues are of little interest to the printed media.

Sports journalism focuses almost exclusively on results, tournaments and top athletes. According to new research on sports coverage in 80 newspapers from 22 countries presented at the Play the Game conference in Cologne on 3 October, sports politics and economic issues are of little interest to the printed media.

A record number of nations have now confirmed their participation in the International Sports Press Survey 2011, an update of the 2005 version which at the time was the biggest quantitative survey ever of the sports content in the written press.

Six years have passed since Play the Game launched the biggest survey so far on the content of the newspaper sports pages. 14 research institutions from 10 countries in three continents took part, and a total of 37 leading newspapers were analysed.