Well, now you can. The Press Ombudsman and Press Council of Ireland are now fully up and running. They launched a new website on New Year’s Day (it’s not just a new-look site, it’s a whole new website, with new urls for everything, which – annoyingly – meant that I have had to recode the links in my earlier posts on this topic). More to the point, the Ombudsman and Council are now ensconced in their new premises at 1, 2 & 3 Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2, and following yesterday’s formal launch (Blurred Keys | Irish Examiner | Irish Independent | Irish Times (sub req’d) here and here | Press Gazette) they are now (eventually! thankfully!!) open for business. So, if you think that a print publication has breached the Press Council’s Code of Practice for Newspapers and Periodicals, you can now make a complaint to the Ombudsman and thereafter to the Press Council.

The shiny new website comes complete with a shiny new slogan:

Time will tell whether this process really is a new Charter – the claim strikes me as a tad grandiloquent. However, after too much vacillation, it is now at least well begun; and, as my Irish teacher taught me:

tosach maith leath na h-oibre!

(For the non-Irish speaking reader, this translates as: a good start is half the work).

The Press Ombudsman and Press Council seem to be shaping up to try to hit the ground running in the new year. For example, Mark Hennessy in the Irish Times (sub req’d) recently reported that the Press Council will accept complaints from the public from 1 January 2008 about any articles published since 1 October last. However, Ronan McGreevy in the Irish Times (sub req’d) subsequently reported (also here) that meeting of the Press Council will take place next month, at which a decision will be taken as to when it will start taking complaints from the public, but the aim is still for 1 January. Read the rest of this entry »

I concluded yesterday’s post by wondering what the impact of the Defamation Bill, 2006 might be upon the decision of Charlton J in Leech v Independent Newspapers (High Court, unreported, 28 June 2007). After that decision was handed down, the Department of Justice confirmed that the Bill, which failed to complete its passage through the Oireachtas during the lifetime of the last government, is to be re-entered on the order paper of the new Seanad in the Autumn (see Irish Times (sub req’d)). Though it is a flawed Bill, it is much better than the existing position; so this would be good news, were it not for the fact that the Irish Times predicts the Bill will be altered to reflect a more minimalist approach to libel reform.

Whatever else is excised, it is certain that the provisions relating to the Press Council and Press Ombudsman will be retained, not least because the membership of the Council was announced early in the Summer, and the Ombudsman has recently been appointed Read the rest of this entry »

The membership of the Press Council of Ireland was announced today (Blurred Keys | Breaking News | Media Forum | RTÉ | the press release pdf is here). Their first job will be to fill the position of Press Ombudsman. Once that is done, the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman can be formally launched as an independent regulatory mechanism for Ireland’s print (though not broadcast) media. When they are up and running, the Press Council and Ombudsman will allow a quick avenue of complaint against newspapers for breaching the Code of Practice (pp 10-13 of this pdf). Complaints will go in the first instance to the Ombudsman, though complex cases and appeals from the Ombudsman will go to the Council. Read the rest of this entry »

The Business This Week section of today’s Irish Times carries an advertisment (on page 18), under the heading used as the title to thise post, seeking applications for the position of Press Ombudsman. The advertisment is available online here (from Grant Thornton’s recruitment arm).

The Press Ombudsman is a crucial part of the press industry’s Press Council package, and will be critical not only to the efficient working of the complaints system but also as a consequence to the public legitimacy of the entire project. According to the Press Council website [update (3 January 2008): the website has been redesigned and this link is no longer active]:

The Press Ombudsman

The Press Ombudsman will be appointed by the Press Council, is and will be the public face of Irish press regulation; s/he is the person who will receive complaints from members of the public, consider whether they are valid, and then seek to resolve them to the satisfaction of everyone involved. The Press Ombudsman will deal with the majority of complaints by members of the public, however s/he will also has the option of referring difficult cases (or cases where those involved are dissatisfied with the decision) to the Press Council of Ireland.

As I said here when membership of the Press Council itself was advertised in March, the press industry are to be applauded for going ahead with the establishment of these organs even in the absence of the Defamation Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) which envisaged them.

Now that An Taoiseach (the Prime Minister) has put us out of our misery and finally called the long-awaited general election, all Bills currently pending will fall with the outgoing Dáil (Lower House). Of those of particular interest to this blog, this means that the Defamation Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) and the Privacy Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) now both fall too, and their fate will have to await the pleasure of the incoming government in the next Dáil.

The fate of the Defamation Bill, in particular, raises an interesting question for the press industry. The Bill provided for the recognition of a Press Council; the press industry has advanced with the establishment of an Office of the Press Ombudsman and the Press Council of Ireland in parallel with the passage of the Bill through the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament); and they will now have to decide whether to continue with this process now that the Bill has fallen. They could of course keep their powder dry until after the election, in the hope that the incoming government revives the Bill, and then press on with the formation of the Ombudsman and Council. But it would be a better indication of their bona fides in this matter if they carried on regardless, and established the Press Council before the next Dáil sits. Indeed, having done so, it would then give them the credibility to call for the Defamation Bill to be revived by the incoming government!

Yesterday saw another milestone in the development of responsible journalism in Ireland. Joining the Press Council (blogged here) on the roster is Headline, which, according to its website:

… is Ireland’s national media monitoring programme, working to promote responsible and accurate coverage of mental health and suicide related issues within the Irish media.

Managed by Schizophrenia Ireland, Headline was set up by the Health Service Executive’s National Office for Suicide Prevention as part of Reach Out National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention (pdf). I learn from a piece by Carl O’Brien (who had launched the Headline website a fortnight ago with George Hook) in today’s Irish Times (sub req’d) that this important and welcome development is supported by the NUJ. Whether or not the media accept the prevasiveness of their influence, the fact that the initiative has the support of the NUJ is a welcome exercise of responsibility on their part.

This week saw the launch of the website for the Office the Press Ombdsman and Press Council of Ireland – already much discussed on this blog. [Update (3 January 2008): the website has been revamped and is now available here). All told, it is a rather elegant, user-friendly, and comprehensive website, which will, for example, make it easy for a member of the public to contact the Council with a complaint. This comes hot on the heels of last week’s advertisments seeking applications from members of the public to serve as members of the Press Council. Read the rest of this entry »