THE OIREACHTAS Committee on Justice has approved a resolution recognising the Press Council of Ireland as “the Press Council” under the terms of the 2009 Defamation Act.
The motion will go back to the Dáil and Seanad for approval after the Easter recess.
Moving the motion at the committee yesterday Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, said it completed the final element outstanding from the passage of the Defamation Act.
“The Act provides a modern legal framework and it gives statutory expression to developments in the jurisprudence of our courts and elsewhere, including the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.
“The Act implemented the commitments contained in the agreed programme for government to legislate in this area,” said Mr Ahern.
He said that throughout the lengthy debates on the Bill there had been significant support from all sides of both Dáil and Seanad for the concept of a Press Council to set the standards for the print industry, to establish rules of conduct for its members and to provide the public with an effective no-cost alternative to the courts in settling disputes.
“The Defamation Act 2009 supports the concept of an independent rather than a Government appointed Press Council. An imaginative element of that approach, provided for under section 44 of the Act, is that a body, as now in the case of the Press Council of Ireland, can apply to be afforded statutory recognition by both Houses of the Oireachtas for the purposes of the Act. Such recognition, which affords certain benefits, is done on foot of approval of the motion from the Minister for Justice and Law Reform,” said the Minister.
