Today is world press freedom day but unfortunately for much of the world it's just another day without media freedom or even freedom of speech. We in the EU pride ourselves on representing all the people and see the media as a legitimate and essential part of participative democracy. This includes the right to question those responsible for representing our interests, to better understand how they are exercising their responsibilities in representing and leading us, and to report this back to citizens. A free media, free speech and the accountability of our leaders is part of our democracy, pa