Ethics and public relations

There has been a lot of talk recently about corporate ethics. But what about the ethics of the public relations industry? What should a professional do, or refuse to do?

In many companies, the greatest ethical pressure on public relations professionals comes from management misunderstanding of the role of public relations. If you believe it exists to present the company in the best possible light at all times, then deception and media manipulation are going to be pretty necessary parts of the public relations tool-bag.

But if you believe our task is to create and build positive, productive relationships, the game changes. Any worthwhile relationship is founded on trust. And in any relationship, if you habitually lie, mislead, cover up or manipulate, the relationship is a dead bird.

So what should our standards be? What should we do and not do? Here are a few from my personal list. If you have suggestions to add, e-mail us. We'd like to hear from you.

• We don't lie.
• We don't withhold facts if we know that by withholding them we actually mislead.
• We don't buy favours. If a media trip is primarily a "jolly" for the journalists, rather than a chance to see and learn, then that is buying favours. And we don't.
• We don't abdicate responsibility. We are not just messengers in Brooks Brothers suits. We are responsible for the information we provide. "Well, that's what I was told" isn't good enough. If we have reason to doubt the facts, we check and check again.
• We don't make promises. And when we do make them, we keep them. And if we don't keep them, we admit the fact and put the record straight. And if we can't be straight, we quit public relations and start selling Time Share.

What would you add?