Speaker’s Corner
Denise Horan
EVERY editor must surely have them. Nights when worry fills the mind, preventing it from succumbing to the lure of sleep. They’re usually nights when the paper has just been ‘put to bed’, that twilight time between signing off the last page and the latest edition reaching the first reader’s hands.
Was that word appropriate? Was that name spelt correctly? Was that comment too harsh? Was that phrase slightly ambiguous? Did I double-check the source of that comment? Was that headline misleading?
With the best will in the world, all newspapers make mistakes. Journalists and editors are all human beings, after all, prone to occasional errors and lapses of judgement. You simply hope that if one is made it will not lead to a libel case that could potentially ruin the paper.
Sometimes, the mistakes can arise in the most innocuous places and ways. It might be in the story you thought was ‘water tight’, in the comment you considered almost throwaway, in the sports report that seemed perfectly-balanced. You just never know.
This isn’t a call for violins. Just a brief insight into our world. Most of us involved in the newspaper industry know we are in a privileged position – and an influential one, as the power of the media continues to grow. We also know that the role carries with it great responsibility; any journalist who fails to accept that fact and apply the standards it demands in their work should not be working as a journalist.
Freedom of the press is sacred and must be safeguarded, in order that newspapers continue to inform, challenge, analyse, uncover and investigate for the benefit of society. That freedom is sometimes challenged by the application of pressure by outside interests or by the threat of legal action, both of which can be overcome with strength and courage, if the editor believes the story is true and in the public interest. What is more difficult to overcome, however, is damage caused by abuse of that freedom by members of the press. That is the greatest ongoing danger it faces.
The establishment of the Press Council and the office of the Press Ombudsman will help to ensure the preservation of that freedom, which is the cornerstone of good journalism, while also ensuring that the public is protected. Writing on the topic in the handbook on the Press Ombudsman and Press Council of Ireland, the Chairman of the Council, Mayo man Professor Thomas Mitchell, says: “It [freedom of the press] is a vital underpinning of a free society, the means by which the public is kept well-informed, and by which governments and public bodies are kept under scrutiny.”
But, he adds, ‘freedom of the press cannot be absolute’. “It is bounded by the obligation to reflect the rights of individuals and to have regard for the public welfare.”
Towards the achievement of this two-fold end – challenging and brave journalism and protection of the public – will the Press Council operate. It will not replace the court system for people seeking redress for articles in newspapers which they believe to be inaccurate, unfair or intrusive, it will simply provide a free, efficient and independent alternative for having complaints dealt with, if matters cannot first be resolved directly with the editor of the publication.
All registered national and regional newspaper, periodicals and magazines will be issued with the Council’s Code of Practice and will be expected to operate within that code in their publications. If a member of the public has a personal grievance with any article that appears in one of the those papers, he or she may complain to the Council, which will investigate the complaint and decide what action, if any, to take against the publication. No compensation order can be made by the Council; redress instead will be in the form of an apology or clarification, as directed by the Council.
It won’t eradicate all worry-related sleeplessness for editors, but it will be in everybody’s best interests.
