Press ombudsman – Appointment welcome and long overdue

YESTERDAY’S announcement of the appointment of Professor John Horgan as Ireland’s first press ombudsman is a welcome milestone in the relationship between the press and the people of Ireland.

For decades it was a relationship fraught with mistrust and occasionally manipulated by vested interests, but this appointment is the all but final piece in the jigsaw needed to establish a relationship of equals between the newspapers published in Ireland and their readers.

If a person now feels aggrieved, that person can seek immediate and free redress through the ombudsman, irrespective of their ability to fund what has often been frighteningly expensive court actions.