Other than the desire to shock listeners - and thereby create controversy, grow audiences and sell advertising — the current spate of repulsive shock-jock gibberish all share something else: a salary from CBS.

Thursday is World Press Freedom Day, a day when all of us - citizens, media professionals, governments, non-governmental organizations and what has come to be known as “civil society” - should remember and celebrate the crucial role a free press plays in democracy and development.