John Horgan appointed Press Ombudsman

John Horgan

John Horgan, emeritus professor at DCU, has been appointed Ireland's first Press Ombudsman. He will take up his post in September and aims to be ready to handle public complaints and queries about the press from November.

The Press Ombudsman is the key post in a new system of voluntary regulation by Ireland's newspapers and magazines. Together with the recently established Press Council, the Press Ombudsman aims to provide an independent and effective mechanism for investigating complaints and providing redress. Publishers and journalists have agreed a new Code of Practice that will be the framework for considering complaints.

"The Press Council and Ombudsman will also defend sound journalistic principles and the role of the print media in today's society. At a time when media generally are becoming more fragmented, the core values of the traditional print media - accuracy, fairness, timeliness and authenticity, are more important than ever", Professor Horgan said on his appointment.

Professor Horgan, who started in journalism in 1962, joined Dublin City University (then the National Institute of Higher Education) in 1983 and was appointed Professor of Journalism in 1999. He has been a member of Seanad Eireann, Dail Eireann and the European Parliament. He has written biographies of Sean Lemass, Noel Browne and Mary Robinson, a history of Irish media since 1922 and an analysis of RTE's relations with government.

He is one of the co-editors of the recently published volume, Mapping Irish Media - critical explorations, a collection of essays mainly by members of the staff of the DCU School of Communications.