Press Releases

“Current Issues in Journalism”

THE OFFICE OF CORONER AND THE CORONER’S COURT

Address by Dave O’Connell, Group Editor of the Connacht Tribune, at the Press Council’s conferenceon media coverage of suicide in Portlaoise on December 3rd 2008

Farr, 1841“Some plan for discounting by common consent the detailed dramatic tales of suicide, murder and bloodshed in the newspapers is well worth the attention of their editors. No fact is better established in science than that suicide (and murder may perhaps be added) is often committed from imitation”.

The role of newspaper coverage in cases of suicide was highlighted at a meeting in Portlaoise on [Wednesday 3rd December] sponsored by the Press Council of Ireland, and which heard contributions from journalists, experts on suicide, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health, Mr. John Molony TD.

Extract from address by Professor John Horgan, Press Ombudsman at the launch of “Memoir” by Tim Pat Coogan.  The Writers’ Museum, Dublin, Tuesday 30 September 2008

“It’s all the politicians’ fault: why don’t they do something.” “It’s all the guards’ fault: they should sort it all out now.” “It’s all the courts’ fault: they should lock them up for life.” “It’s all the media’s fault: if they didn’t glamorize them, these gangs would be seen for the thugs they are.”  

The creation of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman is a development that has, it is true, been some time in coming. And its arrival has not been without controversy. The pressing need to reform our laws on defamation was indeed one of the driving forces behind the initiative taken by the print media generally, almost five years ago now, to explore the possibility of setting up a new regulatory system for themselves. That reform is now in train and, although it has not been finalised, it promises to make some significant changes in our libel laws for the first time in almost half a century. This is no small achievement, and both the present Minister for Justice and his immediate predecessor are entitled to credit for it.

Extract from remarks by Professor John Horgan, Press Ombudsman, at a debate organized by the Law Society and the Journalism Society, University College, Cork Wednesday, 6 February 2008, 8 pm

Members of the Press Council, Press Ombudsman, Ladies and Gentlemen,