Standards of the Press Fox can’t be trusted to guard hens

The National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), which represents the country’s leading newspapers, has called for a press council based on the independent Swedish model rather than one based on statutory regulations being advocated by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, who has proposed the council be comprised entirely of government nominees.

Under the NNI model, rather than statutory regulation, a Press Ombudsman and Press Council would be acknowledged in law to enable them to carry out their functions. This was one of Justice Tom Finlay's recommendations in a 1996 report on the newspaper industry.

In this climate of political sleaze it is hard to imagine a more inappropriate suggestion than advocating that politicians should govern the flow of information from newspapers to the public.