Madam, - On behalf of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), I welcome the Cabinet decision to proceed with legislation for the appointment of a press ombudsman and a press council.
We believe this law will provide much-needed redress for members of the public in cases of inaccurate or erroneous newspaper or magazine reporting. In addition, we believe that, by providing an effective and speedy form of redress, this law will be good for citizens and for the print media.
At the moment, people have no effective remedy apart from a libel action. However, the courts are prohibitively costly for most people and are not appropriate for addressing simple errors or mistakes made by newspapers. All of us in the media business know that the system of readers' representatives, established to deal with such matters, is effectively non-existent. As a result, getting corrections made or replies published can often take a lot of time and persistence and sometimes requests for corrections are simply ignored or palmed off.
Because of this experience it is not surprising that a recent survey of the country's public relations practitioners showed that 75 per cent want to see the immediate introduction of legislation providing for the appointment of a press ombudsman and the establishment of a press council. It is in this context that the PRII welcomes the announcement and we look forward to the speedy enactment and implementation of this proposed legislation. - Yours, etc,
PAT MONTAGUE, President, Public Relations Institute of Ireland, Montague Communications, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.