Here a government minister can allegedly tell a person to f*** off and that person can tell the media. A journalist can do his job by reporting the truth and not face prosecution by the state. And he can protect the source of his information even when he is arrested and questioned for many hours.

The daughter of a criminal is free to publish a book painting her father in a positive light, but we, the inhabitants of a democracy, are free to choose whether we will buy her book or not.

When a senior government figure takes money from friends or strangers while in office, we can find out about it and he can be forced to answer questions about it at a tribunal.

In Burma, the military junta restricts free reporting to such an extent that many journalists have been forced to move out of the country and report on events from abroad.

This has been the only way to get around the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), which subjects all news to censorship before it can be published or broadcast.

Journalist Aung Myint was sentenced to 21 years in prison for supplying information to the foreign media about the plight of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi in September 2000. Aung Pwint and Thaung Tan were arrested in 1999 for making independent documentaries that showed the harsh realities of everyday life in Burma. They were both sentenced to eight years in jail.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental pillar of modern liberal democracies. It is considered one of the most significant human rights. And it is a right that people throughout the history of the world have died to secure.

The principle of free speech is enshrined in Article 40.6.1 of the Irish Constitution, provided it is not used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the state. There is general agreement among most people that freedom of speech should not be limited unless it expresses hatred, aggression or a lie.

A free media is an essential source of the information at the heart of a free society. It is important that this media subjects power and people in high office to critical analysis.

It is the role of the fourth estate to impose a healthy check on the centres of power to maintain an enlightened society.

John Pilger, in the introduction to the book Tell Me No Lies, argues that the perils for objective journalism have never been greater:

"Never has free journalism been as vulnerable to subversion on a grand, often unrecognisable scale. Giant public relations companies, employed by the state and other vested interests, now account for much of the editorial content of the media, however insidious their methods and indirect their message."

Good journalism not only keeps the record straight but holds those in power to account.

It asks the uncomfortable questions. It scrutinises, it probes and it respects the reader's intelligence.

American journalist TD Allman summed it up thus: "Genuinely objective journalism is journalism that not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right. It is compelling not only today but stands the test of time. It is validated not only by 'reliable sources', but by the unfolding of history. It is journalism that ten, 20, 50 years after the fact still holds up a true and intelligent mirror to events."

Unlike in Burma, journalists in this part of the world rarely risk life or limb to report the truth. But one does not have to be in Iraq or Afghanistan to become "embedded". We must be sure there is a distinction between information control and the media. We have the free press and democracy that Burma yearns for and we have an overwhelming duty to protect it.