Blog Post #3

The career path that I’m looking to get into is public relations. There is a specific code of ethics for public relations. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has them listed on their website. Here are the important points from the website:

The Code, created and maintained by the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS), sets out principles and guidelines built on core values. Fundamental values like advocacy, honesty, loyalty, professional development and objectivity structure ethical practice and interaction with clients and the public.

Translating values into principles of ethical practice, the Code advises professionals to:

• Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information.
• Foster informed decision making through open communication.
• Protect confidential and private information.
• Promote healthy and fair competition among professionals.
• Avoid conflicts of interest.
• Work to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.

Code guidelines, like tactics supporting strategies, zero in on putting value and principles into play for working professionals facing everyday tasks and challenges. Among them, professionals should:

• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Reveal sponsors for represented causes and interests.
• Act in the best interest of clients or employers.
• Disclose financial interests in a client’s organization.
• Safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of clients and employees.
• Follow ethical hiring practices to respect free and open competition.
• Avoid conflicts between personal and professional interests.
• Decline representation of clients requiring actions contrary to the Code.
• Accurately define what public relations activities can accomplish.
• Report all ethical violations to the appropriate authority.

In the case study in Chapter 2 in the book, the case was laced with ethical dilemmas. In this case, the husband was accompanying his wife to pick up a ‘bombshell’ videotape story from a NBC affiliate. The videotape contains a pertinent conversation of a prisoner, which ends up being a violation of his rights. The husband is now an accomplice in an ethical dilemma, unbeknownst to him.

These ethical guidelines from the PRSA help me understand what exactly the ethical dilemmas were in this case. The first guideline is to protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information. Depending on what kind of information was on that videotape, really determines the situation. If it was a confession to a crime of some sort, the truth should always be made apparent. But, the argument here is the way the information has gotten into the communications professional’s hands. That’s where the dilemma comes in, because you could be following the Code of Ethics but also be breaking the law at the same time. This is a time where the Code of Ethics is actually not helpful. 

The ethical dilemma about the husband now being an accomplice to a situation where he didn’t even know what was going on, he was just trying to be a good husband, is not so black and white. To have his innocence proved in this situation, he’d have to actually prove he was absolutely not sure about the situation.

To be fair, and I’ve talked about this in the previous blog post, that ethics really comes down to what you feel in your gut is the right thing to do.