J Class,
Yes, of course there's plenty of uninformed drivel written about the industry and splashed in full colour in the newspapers, and of course much of this nonsense is very frustrating reading for industry professionals, and so fair dibs for those who vent their frustration on these forums.
So what is wrong with venting our frustrations? no one that I've seen is advocating censorship of the free press.
What would you have said if Ian had been a journalist investigating Farepak a year ago and you were a professional in the consumer finance industry at that time - would you have said that the industry self-regulation was going well, with precious few negative incidents, and therefore journalists should simply keep out?
As this isn't a financial services website/forum I would suggest that your comparison is worthless, after all, we are talking about airline safety standards
Whether Ryanair or any specific carrier has a good safety culture is anyone's guess, although as a pax I've always suspected it's the legacy carriers who fly closer to the safety line - but then again what do I know?
Well J class, rather than suspecting, speculating, or indeed insinuating, perhaps a quick scan through some of these forums and taking on-board the informed comment that many of us who work in the industry take the time to put forward...you could formulate or more informed opinion.
Ian, regrettably members of your professional body have less than pure motivations, when it comes to getting the story. I suspect your request for more info will be met with suspicion.