Politicians unhappy with media reporting urged to use ombudsman services as ‘powerful alternative’ to legal case

Politicians unhappy with media reporting should show solidarity with the press by using the services of the Office of Press Ombudsman as “powerful alternative” to a legal case, Press Ombudsman Susan McKay has said.

She was speaking as the 2022 annual report for her office and the Press Council, which decides on appeals, set out 260 complaints to the ombudsman against press coverage last year.

Citing financial strain on the newspaper, magazine and online news industry that funds the complaints system, Press Council chairman Rory Montgomery said the body was “inevitably suffering a knock-on effect from the loss of revenue” from advertising and print circulation.

“Our annual budget, most of which goes to fund the Office of the Press Ombudsman, is in real terms now less than half of what it was when we were founded in 2008,” he said.

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At a time of acute pressure on media, he said the ombudsman’s office and the council were “more important than ever and must be able to do their jobs”.

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The complaints in 2022 were “significantly fewer” in number than in 2021 when complaints surged about reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, among them multiple complaints about a small number of articles.

Ms McKay, a senior journalist and author, took office last October in succession to Peter Feeney. Signalling a public awareness campaign next year to encourage people to use her office, she said it was clear that growing public awareness was a priority.

She said politicians and others in high office could set “a good example” by using her office to deal with their complaints against the media rather than going directly to the courts.

“I would really urge people in high office, including politicians, to use the office of the Press Ombudsman to deal with their complaints against the press. Is it really in anybody’s interest to take a defamation case which could actually sink a newspaper in order to make your point about some wrong that you have suffered?” she asked.

“If people feel they also wish to go to law, there is nothing to stop them taking a complaint to the Press Ombudsman and then subsequently going to law with it if that is what they wish to do.”

Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on the Arts and Media, said she agreed with the Ombudsman’s comments.

“If you go down the route of defamation, not only for the newspaper, the financial pressures and impacts that that might have long term, but also for the person taking the action, I can only imagine it would be an expensive route to go through.”

Interaction with the Ombudsman, and perhaps being able to resolve the matter without use of the courts, “is a positive way to go and something we should promote a little bit more”, she said. A briefing for politicians about taking this route, rather than “jumping into the legal quagmire”, might be helpful as some politicians may not be aware the option is open to them, she added.

Ireland needs a strong public service broadcasting ecosystem that includes a strong RTÉ and recognition that independent radio and TV channels are equally part of the public service remit, Ms Smyth said. “More broadly, the role of newspapers needs to be recognised as important in ways that fully recognise their independence also.”

“The license fee is redundant,” she added. “Replacing it with State funding alone is potentially as much a vicegrip for control of the media as it is for its support. It would leave the media a hostage to the economic fortunes of the State as well as proving temptation to restrict its resources. There are no easy answers but there is pressing need.”

Nine complaints to the ombudsman last year were resolved to complainants’ satisfaction by editors through a conciliation process, the annual report showed. Three of 21 complaints that went on for a decision by the ombudsman were upheld, one of which the Press Council overturned on appeal.

The report said 14 of complaints decided by the ombudsman were not upheld while publications offered “sufficient remedial action” in four cases to resolve the complaints.

The Press Council did not uphold four of the five appeals that were made against ombudsman decisions. In addition, the council “considered but did not uphold” one complaint directly referred to it.

The complaints last year included 119 which were not pursued beyond the preliminary enquiry stage, 21 which were against publications not in the Press Council and 16 which issued after the three-month deadline for making complaints.

Mr Montgomery, a former diplomat, said the “dramatic events” at RTÉ have brought the question of the funding of public service media into renewed focus.

“The press and the broadcast media in many ways have a symbiotic relationship. That is why we in the Press Council have a strong interest in what happens next. I hope the Government does not delay in making a decision.”

Referring to the newly-established Coimisiún na Meán and its work to regulate social media, he said the institution faced a “mammoth” task.

“It is vital for everyone in traditional media – broadcast, print or online – that it succeeds in getting to grips with this task.

“Social media are already to a large degree setting the new agenda – above all for younger people – and we are all aware of the very serious political and societal consequences that can follow when the global platforms are not held accountable.”