THIS week your Worcester News is celebrating Local Newspaper Week.

The theme of this year’s event is press freedom, highlighting the importance of local newspapers when it comes to scrutinising those in authority and holding the powerful to account.

Your Worcester News is one of 1,100 local and regional newspapers in the UK and our website among the 1,600 in the UK.

Demand for local news and information has never been higher, with more people accessing it than ever before through printed local newspapers, their sister websites, smartphones and tablets.

In print, local papers are read by 31 million people a week and 62 million unique users visit local newspaper websites every month.

These millions of people trust their local paper to report accurately and fairly on the issues that matter most to their lives.

But often, ‘news’ is information that a person, public body or private business doesn’t want you to read about.

We believe passionately that you have the right to be kept fully informed about what is happening.

Our job is to cut through the smokescreens and get to the true facts of the matter.

We don’t let evasive answers, unreturned phone calls – and, sometimes, outright lies – prevent us from seeking to publish the truth.

This is what press freedom truly means; our right to responsibly seek out the true facts on your behalf and present them in a fair, accurate and balanced way. Without this our democracy, and with it the basic freedoms we all enjoy, would be vulnerable to abuse by the rich and powerful, and those with vested interests to serve.

Defending press freedom is about defending our basic rights as citizens and we believe passionately that they are of fundamental importance to us all.

On Wednesday we will be running a live blog here so that you can learn a bit more about how we put together your Worcester News.

Please feel free to log on and ask us questions.