What Sort of Free Society Do We Live In?

Probation officer Josie Bullock faces the sack, not for sitting in the front row at a poroporoaki (farewell ceremony) for male offenders but speaking out because she got a warning. The Corrections Department Code of Conduct rules about speaking to the media should not be about gagging people. They are supposed to be there so that public servants support the government of the day in their work, not to allow the bureaucracy to ride roughshod over people's rights - or is it actually Government policy that women should not sit in the front row at poroporaki?

Where are the unions in all this? Surely they should be speaking out for the workers' right to freedom of speech and for the freedom of the press?