PR pros don’t have ethics?
Kami has an interesting post on some research done into the awareness of ethics among public relations professionals and journalists. The survey of 100 journalists and PRs was conducted by Lou of the The State of the Media.
Apparently, out of the 25 per cent of respondents to the survey, only four people cited particular codes of conduct that they choose to follow; only one of those could cite one of the articles within the code of their choice.
I find this shocking. Especially as the survey was mostly focused on professionals from the San Francisco area and journalists in America are almost fantical about the First Amendment and all the ethical issues that surround it. UK jounos tend to have a reputation for taking ethics a little less seriously.
At Strive Public Relations, we append the CIPR Code of Conduct to every employment contract so that each of our team members understands how seriously we take these matters before they sign on. Without the Code, and the integrity that it implies, the public relations profession is at risk of losing credibility. And that’s bad for business.
Filed under: public relations
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Great idea to add the code of conduct to your employment contracts.
Thanks Cathy. It helps them understand from the outset how serious we are about providing our clients only the best service and the highest standards.
I agree that appending the code of ethics is a great way to make it clear what you stand for. I have also read that some people append them to client contracts as well, to make sure the client understands what the agency will and will not do. I haven’t done either yet, but I think I am going to start.