Ethics should be part of everything public relations professionals do. Rob Brown discusses the importance of acting reputably in public relations

A few years ago I went to see Lord Digby Jones, the former minister of state for trade, speak at the Hay Festival. He told a story about his arrival in government, “I got a call to say could Tarquin come to see me. He’s 25 years old, he’s never done a day’s work in his life and he’s got an upper second degree in Norwegian Aardvark Sexing and he can’t wait to be the parliamentary candidates for Nether Wallop, he comes to see my and he says, ‘I’m from Ethics,’ so I say, ‘How long is your commute every morning?’”

What appeared at first to be disdain turned out to be scorn not for ethical practise but for the vaguely vogue idea that it could be the responsibility of a single team. The former minister went on to say that ethics shouldn’t be kept in a silo or run by a department because it has to be in everything you do from the moment you rise to the moment you go to bed.

PR has historically had a bit of an image problem when it comes to ethics. Less than 10 years ago, Dr. Shannon A. Bowen, now an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina, wrote, “Critics argue that there can be no ethical public relations because the practice itself is akin to manipulation and propaganda. An unfortunate belief among many journalists, policy makers and laymen is the belief that the term ‘public relations ethics’ is an oxymoron: either an unreal possibility, or smoke and mirrors to hide deception.”

In more recent years, the PR industry has done a lot to promote the idea that ethics is a fundamental part of professionalism.

The CIPR has played a key role in setting and maintaining standards. We do this through a code of conduct promoting professional ethics to members, their clients and employers and wider public. Members of the CIPR are expected to develop and display ethical competence as a compulsory element in Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

That said, the issue hasn’t gone away and the recent Hillsborough verdicts laid bare a powerful example. Hayley Court, a former acting director of communications for the Association of Chief Police Officers who was head-hunted by South Yorkshire police to work on the Hillsborough inquests, spoke out. She said that she was expected to be a ‘spin doctor’ for the South Yorkshire force during the long- running inquest and was told, “Your job is to round up the media at the end of the day and tell them, ‘This is the line.’”

The line was to promote all evidence that implied South Yorkshire police were not to blame for and to highlight any evidence that suggested supporters had misbehaved. She was expected to spin the story and maintain a line that the police had held since the outset and that the inquest found to be untrue.

There remain people in positions of power who expect PR people to engage in deception, it’s unethical and unacceptable.

This year, the CIPR will have its third annual ethics month in October. It’s an idea we borrowed several years ago from the Public Relations Society of America. In the past, we’ve had roundtable discussions throughout the month showcasing the importance of ethical conduct in public relations and events designed to inform and educate CIPR members and the wider PR profession on key ethical issues impacting public relations.

It’s an initiative I’m very much in favour of and it’s important to demonstrate to the industry and the broader community that we have values. I’m not the first to have said it, but having an Ethics Month is creating a silo of sorts. Every month is ethics month, in October we just turn the volume up.

Rob Brown is president of the CIPR