Thomson Reuters Foundation

South Africa’s constitutional protections for press freedom are among the strongest on the continent. This year, the country even led Africa in the World Press Freedom rankings. So why did half the journalists we spoke to in the country report facing legal threats because of their work? Our latest report, Weaponising the Law: Threats to media freedom in South Africa highlights a widening gap between safeguards for media in principle and threats to their work in practice.

South Africa has a vibrant media sector, and in 2026 led Africa in the World Press Freedom rankings. However, half of journalists we surveyed had faced legal threats because of their work. Safeguards in principle often do not translate into protections in practice – and this growing gap leaves journalists in the country vulnerable. We therefore partnered with ALT Advisory, in association with Power Law Africa, to investigate the challenges that journalists face and to explore ways to counter them.

The EU AI Act marks the first regulation on Artificial Intelligence and provides businesses with an opportunity to lead the way in compliance. Thomson Reuters Foundation’s new report, The Global Impact of The EU AI Act, analyses nearly 3,000 companies and shows that companies that cite the EU AI regulation perform significantly ahead of their peers on governance.

London, 28 July 2026 – A new analysis of the world’s largest dataset on corporate AI use, from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, samples nearly 3,000 global companies and shows that the EU AI Act is already generating a global ripple effect. The Global Impact of The EU AI Act, based on AI Company Data Initiative (AICDI) findings, reveals striking trends in compliance. The EU AI Act marks the first regulation on Artificial Intelligence and comes into effect in August 2026.

Since 2024 in Georgia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that receive 20% or more of their funding from abroad are forced to officially register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”. The following year, the country’s USAID funding was slashed by more than 95%. These organisations were left to try to rapidly understand and comply with new, punitive laws with no budget or legal advice – or close their doors. This is not an isolated case.

Civil society across Europe is under mounting pressure. Shrinking civic space, rising inequality, and the growing complexity of regulatory and cross-border legal challenges mean that the demand for high-quality pro bono legal support has never been greater. At the same time, the infrastructure to meet that demand varies enormously from one country to the next.

When power goes unchecked, societies pay a heavy price. Crime rises. Corruption deepens. Norms erode. That is the core argument behind the 2025 Atlas of Impunity, and its findings make for sobering reading.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing faster than the rules designed to govern it. That gap, between what AI can do and what companies are actually doing to manage it responsibly, is one of the defining challenges of our moment. It’s also the kind of problem that doesn’t get solved in isolation. On 23rd June in Brussels, the Thomson Reuters Foundation brought together the people who need to be in the same room.

Right now, LGBTQ+ people around the world are navigating one of the most turbulent moments in recent memory. Estimates suggest LGBTQ+ people make up barely 10% of the world’s population, but their struggle for social acceptance and equal rights has become a political battleground from the United States to Russia and Senegal.

For too long, media freedom has been positioned as a laudable aspiration rather than a real priority, with strong but often fragmented evidence of its contribution to economic stability, national security and information integrity. That’s why a new report, The Value of Journalism, is critical and timely in revealing the undeniable value of journalism for societies and individuals.