The following are the main recommendations:
1. The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, in exercising his powers to regulate changes of ownership in the newspaper sector, should assess the implications of any change on:
. The strength and competitiveness of the indigenous industry in relation to UK titles
. The plurality of ownership;
. The plurality of titles;
. The diversity of views in Irish society
. The maintenance of cultural diversity.
2. A majority of the commission recommended that consideration should be given to amending existing merger controls in the newspaper industry so as to widen the powers to regulate not only the acquisition of shares but also the acquisition of control over newspapers by other means.
3. The reduction of VAT on the sale of newspapers to a zero rate as a major and primary step towards the strengthening of the indigenous newspaper industry - be undertaken without delay.
4. The establishment by the Government of a special unit within the Advisory Service of the Labour Relations Commission to deal with the newspaper industry and in particular to assist and work with unions and management in those companies in which its assistance is requested jointly to identify changes necessary to achieve competitive efficiency in the industry. This unit should be available exclusively for a fixed period to the industry.
5. If a central shared printing facility were established, State funding should not be provided for it.
6. The creation of a working group involving representatives of the Government Departments involved, representatives of relevant journalist and print unions, FAS, National Newspapers of Ireland and the Provincial Newspapers Association of Ireland to report on the problems of training for all concerned in the industry.
7. The Government should amend the existing Gaming and Lotteries Acts so as to make them an effective deterrent against breaches by newspapers and strictly enforce them as so amended.
8. The Government should, as a matter of urgency, introduce legislation to outlaw below average marginal selling of newspapers in a form similar to that already proposed to it by the NNI.
9. The discontinuance, to the extent to which it exists as a system, of the avoidance of advertising time limits which as a matter of policy have been imposed on RTE by the provision of free gifts and free services.
10. Any issue of concentration of ownership in the media should be considered on a media wide as well as on a single media basis and in any such consideration effect should be given to the difference in consequences arising from such concentration in one branch of the media and concentration in different branches of the media.
11. The appointment and funding by the newspaper industry, both indigenous and imported in Ireland, of a wholly independent ombudsman to investigate complaints of breaches of press standards not involving any possible question of defamation provided that such a complaint has first been made to the newspaper and had not been dealt with to the complainant's satisfaction.
12. Legislative immunity from claims for defamation for such ombudsman if appointed in respect of matters bona fide arising from the exercise of the function of such ombudsman's functions.
13. The following changes in the law of libel:
. A statutory provision endorsing the necessity for directions by a judge to a jury on the range and method of assessing damages and the material considerations which properly affect the assessment of damages on the facts of the case at trial;
. That in cases of inadvertent libel, the person who has not suffered and is not reasonably likely to suffer pecuniary loss should not be entitled to general damages but should, if such a person has not been afforded it on request, to appropriate retraction or correction and/or to a declaration of falsity;
. Any legislation enacted to make changes in the law of libel should include a statutory definition of defamation;
. Any presumption of falsity of any particular defamatory allegation should no longer form part of the law of libel;
. There should be a provision for the lodgment by a defendant in court of monies to meet a claim for damages for defamation with a denial of liability but subject to certain special conditions;
. Any legislation enacted to make changes in the law of libel should include a declaration that the making of an apology should not be deemed to be an admission of liability;
. The law relating to privilege contained in Section 18, Section 24 and the Second Schedule of the Defamation Act, 1961, should be clarified and amended;
. The time limit for actions for libel presently fixed at six years should be substantially reduced;
. Changes in the law affecting the liability of printers or distributors of defamatory matter who are not also publishers so as to excuse them from liability in certain circumstances.
14. The provision of procedures for making available to bona fide journalists acting as such, the right to inspect court documents which have become part of a public hearing in court.
15. The defining by statute of the circumstances and standard procedures under which a local authority or other statutory committee which has an obligation to hold its meetings in public can, by going into committee or otherwise, exclude the public and the press.
16. That where sufficient structures are not in existence to guarantee editorial independence, guarantees of it should be introduced.