Press Council to review membership criteria amid ‘rapid change' in industry
The Press Council of Ireland has initiated a review of its membership procedures and criteria against a backdrop of 'rapid change' in Irish journalism amid a slew of new entrants to the market, its chairman has said.
In a statement issued late last week, Rory Montgomery said he expects the review to be completed and submitted to the council's board in the autumn.
Mr Montgomery, a retired diplomat and senior civil servant who was appointed as chairman of the council in 2022, issued his statement to The Irish Times in response to queries about the rejection of an application for membership submitted by a local news platform in Cork city.
Last year local newsletter Tripe+Drisheen (T+D) was selected to receive funding under a Coimisiún na Meán scheme for regional platforms and titles aimed at supporting local democracy and court reporting. Provisionally the website, founded and edited by Cork-based journalist JJ O'Donoghue, was told it would receive €38,000 over 12 months. It planned to use the funding to hire two part-time reporters and expand its coverage.
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However, the release of the funds was contingent on recipients being accredited member publications of the Press Council. Mr O'Donoghue told The Irish Times that he began that process in November last year.
In a letter dated March 28th, 2025, Mr Montgomery told Mr O'Donoghue that T+D's application for membership did not 'meet the criteria as set out' on the Press Council's website. He also apologised to Mr O'Donoghue for 'unavoidable delays' in dealing with the application.
The Press Council has still not told Mr O'Donoghue which of its nine criteria his publication failed to meet, the journalist said last week.
'The Press Council has accredited media organisations from Gript to the Ditch, so it's a wide gamut,' he said. 'But what's particularly frustrating is that the board has provided zero clarity around which criteria T+D failed to meet, and yet has told us to apply again in the future. It's ironic coming from a media oversight body.'
In a response to questions last week, Mr Montgomery said he could not go into 'the specifics' of T+D's application, but said the board had considered it 'on a number of occasions' before the decision to reject it in March.
T+D is published on Substack, a US-owned platform that allows journalists to earn subscription income for blogs, newsletters, videos and podcasts.
Mr Montgomery denied that T+D's presence on Substack was an issue for the board when it was considering its application. More than 100 publications are currently Press Council members, he said, 'several are exclusively online' and there are 'no restrictions as to the means of online publication'.
The chairman added that the council had 'recently initiated a review of its membership procedures and criteria'.
Asked for more information, he said a subcommittee of the Press Council was set up 'last month' to 'review those elements of its constitution and procedures relating to membership and resignation/expulsion'.
He said that one matter to be considered was 'communication with prospective members'.
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