A pivotal moment has come for the press in Ireland with the acceptance that an independent Press Ombudsman and Press Council should be established to regulate standards in the print media and deal with complaints from citizens.
The National Newspapers of Ireland , the representative body for the proprietors and editors of daily and Sunday newspapers, and the National Union of Journalists, the professional body for journalists, have arrived at a consensus on the setting up of a system of independent press regulation in recent days. The principle has been conceded and the debate will centre on the detail now.
More's the pity, then, that it has taken the heavy hand of the Minister for Justice, Mr Michael McDowell, with the threat of a statutory, Government-appointed Press Council to get to this point. The Minister published the Report of the Legal Advisory Group on Defamation last March. It proposes to repeal the Defamation Act, 1961, to implement reforms in the area of libel law "so as to bring the law here into line with the laws of other states".
The quid pro quo for these necessary changes - most of which are welcome - is the setting up of a statutory Press Council, appointed entirely by the Government, to impose a Government-initiated Code of Conduct on journalists and newspapers. The Government would adjudicate on such subjective matters as taste, honour and decency for the living and the dead.
The Irish Times, which is owned by a Trust, strongly believes that statutory press regulation of the kind proposed is not in the public interest as it would significantly interfere with editorial independence, freedom of expression and the role of the press in a democracy. This newspaper has called for independent rather than self-regulation of many professions during the spate of scandals in recent years. And it cannot adhere to different standards for itself.
In this spirit, the system of independent regulation proposed by the NNI and welcomed, in principle, by the NUJ last Thursday distinguishes clearly between defamation, a legal issue which would remain a matter for the courts, and press standards, an issue of ethics, which would come within the remit of an independent Press Ombudsman and Press Council.
Newspapers would be compelled to sign up to an independent Code of Standards based on best practice in other jurisdictions. The Press Ombudsman and Press Council would ensure that newspapers complied with that code. They would also investigate alleged breaches of the code.
In order to do so, however, their existence would have to be anchored in law to give the independent Ombudsman and the Press Council immunity from action by way of statutory privilege.
There is no gainsaying that there has been a decline in press standards in recent years. A Press Ombudsman and/or Press Council should be set up for their own sake. The Minister's proposal, as a trade-off for a new Defamation Bill, would compromise the independence of the press and, ultimately, the public interest.