John Horgan (academic)

Professor John S. Horgan (born 26 October 1940)cite web |url=http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=1&HouseNum=13&MemberID=1385&ConstID=203 |title=Mr. John S. Horgan |work=Oireachtas Members Database |accessdate=2008-02-06] is the Press Ombudsman in the Republic of Ireland. An author and former Labour Party politician who served from 1969 to 1981 a senator and then as a Teachta Dála (TD), he was Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University before taking up the ombudsman post in 2007.

Political career

Horgan began his career in 1962 as a journalist on the Evening Press newspaper, and later worked as a staff journalist on the Catholic Heraldcite web |url=http://www.pressombudsman.ie/v1/_pdfreleases/statement-14Aug07.pdf |title=Prof. John Horgan confirmed as Ireland's first Press Ombudsman |work=Office of the Press Ombudsman |date=14 August 2007 |accessdate=2008-02-06] and on The Irish Times, where he wrote about religion and education.cite web |url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0815/1187036479260.html |title=State's first Press Ombudsman appointed |author=Paul Cullen |work=The Irish Times |date=15 August 2007 |accessdate=2008-02-06]

He was elected in 1969 as a member of the 12th Seanad Éireann representing the National University of Ireland constituency. He was re-elected in 1973 to the 13th Seanad, and at the 1977 general election he was elected to Dáil Éireann as TD for the Dublin County South constituency. After boundary changes for the 1981 general election, he was not re-elected in the new Dublin South constituency, and was also unsuccessful at the February 1982 general election. He did not stand again.cite web |url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=9043 |title=John S Horgan |work=ElectionsIreland.org |accessdate=2008-02-06]

However, after Dr. John O'Connell resigned as one the two Labour Party Members of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency, Horgan was appointed on 21 October 1981 to take his place. He served in the European Parliament only until 1983, when he resigned to take up an academic post.cite book |title=Parliamentary Elections in Ireland 1918–1922 |author=Walker, Brian M. (ed) |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |location=Dublin |year=1992 |isbn=0901714968]

After politics

Horgan was appointed in 1983 as a lecturer in what was then the National Institute for Higher Education in Dublin, which in 1989 became elevated to university status in 1989 became Dublin City University (DCU). He was DCU's Professor of Journalism in 1989, a position he held until his retirement in 2006, and was also a member of the Interim Radio Commission, the Commission on the Newspaper Industry and the Forum on Broadcasting.

Press Ombudsman

In August 2007 he became Ireland's first ever Press Ombudsman after being appointed to the position by the Press Council of Ireland.cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0814/press.html |title=Ireland's first Press Ombudsman named |work=RTÉ News Website |date=14 August 2007 |accessdate=2007-08-14]

The newly-formed Press Council was launched on 11 January 2008. Its Code of Practicecite web |url=http://www.pressombudsman.ie/v2/pressombudsman/portal.php?content=_includes/codeofpractice.php |title=Code of practice for newspapers and periodicals |publisher=Office of the Press Ombudsman |accessdate=2008-02-06] sets out the standards expected from newspapers and periodicals published in Ireland, and members of the public can raise a complaint about articles which directly affects and involves them, and which they think breach the Code of Practice.cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-press-watchdog-aims-to-cut-costly-court-battles-1256257.html |title=New press watchdog aims to cut costly court battles |work=The Irish Independent |date=3 January 2008 |author=Brian Hutton |accessdate=2008-02-06] cite web |url=http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news/launch-of-press-council-1264164.html |title=Launch of Press Council |work=The Nenagh Guardian |date=11 January 2008 |accessdate=2008-02-06] The Ombudsman's role is to mediate — and if necessary, ajudicate — adjudicate on cases where the complainant has not reached agreement with the publisher. More complex cases may be referred to the full Press Council.

The new system was launched partly to provide an alternatively to a growing incidence of increasingly costly litigation, and to head off the threat of a new privacy law. On 9 January 2008, the Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan announced that a proposed new privacy law would be postponed for two years to give the Press Ombudsman "an opportunity to establish himself and the credibility of his office".cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lenihan-puts-back-privacy-laws-for-two-years-1261965.html |title=Lenihan puts back privacy laws for two years |work=The Irish Independent |date=10 January 2008 |author=Fiach Kelly |accessdate=2008-02-06]

Published works

Books by John Horgan include:
* "Broadcasting and Public Life: RTÉ News and Current Affairs 1926-1997". Four Courts Press, 2004. ISBN 1851828397
* "Irish Media: A Critical History Since 1922", Routledge, 2001.
* "Noel Browne: Passionate Outsider", Gill and Macmillan, 2000.
* "Seán Lemass - the Enigmatic Patriot", Gill & MacMillan, 1997.
* "Mary Robinson an independent voice", O'Brien Press, 1997.
* "Labour the price of power", Gill & Macmillan, 1986.
* "Humanae Vitae and the Bishops: the encyclical and the statements of the National Hierarchies", Irish University Press, 1972.
* "The Church Among the People", Pflaum, 1969.
* "The Last revolution", Gill & Son, 1965.

References

External links

* [http://www.pressombudsman.ie Office of the Press Ombudsman]

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