Today marks the start of Journalism Matters Week - a campaign highlighting the vital importance of trusted journalism in these uncertain times.
The Liverpool Echo has a long and proud tradition of campaigning journalism - fighting for our communities, holding authorities to account and telling the stories of Merseyside's remarkable people.
In an age of disinformation and fake news, it is more important than ever that the ECHO provides reliable, trustworthy journalism and continues to hold those in power to account.
Our newspaper remains one of the best-selling regionals in the country and our stories are written by trained journalists, regulated by IPSO and checked by experienced content editors before publication.
Here is a selection of stories that show just why Journalism Matters in the words of ECHO journalists who worked on them.
Steve Graves, Executive Editor Digital
Liverpool FC fans' Champions League final trip to Paris should have been a weekend of celebration. People travelled in their thousands in the hope of seeing the Reds lift Europe's top prize for a seventh time - and enjoying football safely alongside friends, family and fellow supporters. Sadly, that was not to be.
When UEFA and the French authorities' mismanagement of the final led to chaos and terror outside the stadium, followed by attempts to shift the blame which would be laughable if they were not so serious, it was clear there was a battle between those who wanted to establish the truth and those whose interests would be best served by confusion and denial.
In the hours and days that followed, the Liverpool ECHO sought to set out clearly the facts which were clear within minutes - but which took weeks for the authorities to even partially accept.
Our news reporter in Paris, Charlotte Hadfield, reported from France alongside photographer Andrew Teebay, while reporters in Liverpool including Liam Thorp and Patrick Edrich worked tirelessly to track down fans who were there, ask questions of those in power and document the shameful attempts to obscure the truth.
Liam Thorp, Political Editor
Merseyside is a unique and vibrant region but it is also an area with huge levels of deprivation. The cost of living crisis is having an all encompassing impact on the people of this region as they fight to keep their heads above water amid soaring price rises for the basic things they need to survive.
The ECHO has a strong tradition of giving voices to people who aren't always heard and that was my intention when writing an in-depth feature on the impacts of this crisis on some of the most struggling and vulnerable people in Merseyside.
I spoke with people attending a breakfast club in Birkenhead who had not eaten for several days. I travelled to a food bank in north Liverpool to meet mums who were skipping meals in order to feed their kids - and I spoke to those on the frontline trying to keep people alive through the tough months ahead.
This is the kind of reporting the ECHO is passionate about, we will always stand up for the people of this region - particularly when their backs are against the wall.
Charlotte Hadfield, Senior Reporter
At the ECHO we work tirelessly to try and give a voice to people who are often marginalised and misunderstood.
This is what I set out to achieve when I visited AP Coaching and Mentoring Academy CIC, which is based in one of the most deprived parts of the country, on County Road in Walton.
Drugs and the criminal gangs associated with them are often reported in the media, but it's also important to show the misery drugs can have on communities.
The academy has helped over 200 people to stay clean from drug and alcohol addiction and go on to build a life for themselves.
It was a privilege to be able to share the stories of service users Lynsey, Joanne and Phil whose lives were torn apart by addiction but have now managed to turn it around. Each of their stories struck a chord with our readers and led to an increase in the number of people accessing the service for support.
Olivia Williams, Reporter
As a journalist I believe people and their voices should be at the core of all the stories we want to write.
It is a privilege to be trusted to tell people's stories who want to raise awareness and share their experiences with a wider audience. People often come to us for help which we always try our best to do.
Sometimes these stories can be difficult to read and also hard to write due to their sensitive nature. One story I wrote recently was about six-year-old Isla who suffers from an extremely rare disease called Niemann Pick type.
Her family have already seen her regress in the few years since her diagnosis and her condition means she won't live past her 13th birthday. I spoke to Isla's dad, Darren Landry, who shared the difficulties the family have faced, but how their "warrior princess" keeps fighting.
We helped by promoting a GoFundMe so the family can make as many memories as possible with Isla and to help pay for costs for the six-year-old's care. ECHO readers came together to help the family and show their support, which shows the true spirit of Liverpool and the whole of Merseyside.
Sophie McCoid, Content Editor
When Liverpool put in a bid to host Eurovision in 2023, the ECHO knew we had to get behind the campaign as soon as possible.
No city can throw a party like Liverpool and we wanted to do everything we could to make sure we were the host city for the song contest.
The 2023 contest should have been held in Ukraine and that was at the front of our minds as we started to create a content plan.
Liverpool has strong links to Ukraine, having being twinned with Odesa since the 1950s. Many Ukrainians now call the city home and we immediately began speaking to people in the community about how we could secure the contest for Liverpool.
Several front pages and many online articles later and we were ecstatic to discover in September that Liverpool had been chosen as the host city, with the council saying we had been instrumental in persuading the judges to award us the gig.
Our Eurovision content will continue to be a big feature going into 2023 and we cannot wait for May.
