Appointment is a watershed for Irish press

THE announcement yesterday that the media academic Professor John Horgan is to become Ireland’s first press ombudsman was a watershed moment for the Irish press, for freedom of expression and — most importantly — for the maturing of relationships between newspapers and their reading public.

Prof Horgan will be a popular appointment. His own roots are very much of the fourth estate, having started his career as a reporter with the Irish Press in the early 1960s. However, his working life has also straddled politics (he was a Labour Party senator, TD and MEP during the 1970s) and academia — he has been associated with Dublin City University’s highly regarded journalism and media school since the early 1980s.

The decision by the independent Press Council of Ireland — and in turn by all facets of the newspaper industry — is a proactive move that will be portrayed by some in the media as putting the cart before the horse.