Ombudsman is an expression of Swedish origin that means "citizen's representative". The word is formed by the union of "ombuds" (representative) and "man" (men). The term appeared in 1809, in Scandinavian countries, to designate a General Ombudsman of Parliament, responsible for mediating and trying to resolve the population's complaints with the government.
Today, the ombudsman has become a profession present in almost all large and medium-sized companies, whether public or private.
The function of the buds, as they are also known, is to see the problems and negative points of a certain company or institution, from the perspective of the consumer/citizen, and try to solve crises in a impartial.
Within the press, the ombudsman is the intermediary between the newspaper's editors, for example, and its readers. In the United States, the ombudsman function emerged in the 1960s. In Brazil, the position has existed since 1989, when the newspaper Sheet of S. Paul published the first editorial of its ombudsman, who would be responsible for being the spokesperson for the readers, solving and transmitting their complaints to the newspaper.
In many companies the ombudsman is linked to the Legal Services department.