US Ambassador Atul Keshap has said that the free press empowers the citizens to make their own decision and that there is no functioning democracy without it.

The Ambassador said this in an exclusive interview with RaajjetV on Wednesday.

In the interview, Ambassador Keshap said the free press 'is the watchdog of democracy, freedoms, and the government, and that space must be created for free speech'.

He also said that politicians and leaders should be able to accept a certain amount of criticism.

“I think that politicians and leaders have a particular responsibility not only to accept that there will be criticism but sometimes to realize that they have to protect the very means by which people criticize them. Whether it’s social media or regular broadcast media, print media.”

He added that he remembers a time in Maldives when there were many newspapers, TV channels, and a vibrant exchange of views on social and expressed concern that now there is fear of expressing oneself freely because of the threat of fines and punishments of court processes that chill the environment for free speech.