THE Irish newspaper industry should appoint an ombudsman "with complete independence with regard to all the functions proposed, for the office", according to the commission.
The ombudsman's function would be to investigate complaints of breaches of press standards involving any possible question of defamation, provided the complaint had first been made to the newspaper in question and had not been dealt with to the complainant's satisfaction.
The ombudsman would accept complaints only from individuals involved or affected by the breach of standards, or their representatives, and the means of access to the ombudsman should be straightforward, simple and well known".
The ombudsman would have the power to direct a newspaper to take steps, to repair the breach by a correction or clarification.
A newspaper which was found to have breached standards could also be directed to publish any ruling against it.
The ombudsman would be appointed by a small committee, representing the National Newspapers of Ireland, the Provincial Newspapers Association of Ireland, the National Union of Journalists and the Newspapers Publishers Association of England.
The committee would also set out, "as a matter of urgency", the guidelines of press standards to be applied by the ombudsman. The guidelines, says the commission, should have regard to the codes of conduct and codes of practice in operation in Ireland and in England" and also to the "social, cultural and political contributions to Irish society from an indigenous newspaper industry".
Funding for the ombudsman and his office would be levied equitably from all papers publishing or circulating in Ireland.
The commission recommends that in any legislation dealing with changes to the laws of libel, a provision should be made to extend immunity from claims of defamation to the ombudsman.