Living in a democracy...

Living in a democracy, one expects elected representatives to work in the public interest, not for their personal gain. The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) – a network of 200+ civil society groups and labour unions – is of the opinion that democracy is not so much going awry because of the role of popular media, but mainly because of the emergence of a political reality within the EU institutions where professional lobbyists play a far greater role than they do in any of the EU member states. It is not the 'mediacracy' sketched out by Ms Geringer, but the 'lobbycracy' portrayed by the Sunday Times, which we should be wary of.