Question

1. Discuss the essence of public relations ethics.

2. Discuss the fundamental difference between public relations ethics and legal ethics.

3. Is there such a thing as an ethical public relations campaign?

Answer 1

Answer 1.

The essence of public relation ethics include values such as loyalty, confidentiality, honesty, objectivity, respect, integrity, fairness, straight-up/forthright communication, openness, rightheouness, independence, expertise, treating others with civilit, etc. Ethics are of outmost important in public relations/PR to gain the interest of public, also in retention of employees in a company and many more. It is important on an individual level to build strong public relations.

Answer 2.

Ethical standards are based on the human principles of right and wrong. The major difference between public relation ethics and legal ethics is that :

Public Relational Ethical standards are based on human rights and wrongs while Legal standards are based on written laws. This implies that it isn't necessary for something to be legal and ethical at the same time.

Answer 3.

Only a good public relation campaign is said to be Ethical, the one that does not deprives the standards of honesty, loyalty, objectivity, respect, integrity, fairness, openness, rightheouness, independence etc.

A good public relations campaign will have a clear objective. It would have pre-inclined goals and specificity in particular campaigns. Public relations requires a clear message for the organization to communicate to the masses that does not violate any of the above mentioned ethical values.

If an organization is able to keep all those values intact while building up public relations and is able to deliver what it actually promised in its campaigns then all such campaigns are termed as ethical public relation campaign.

But in today's modern world we can say that there are a very few example of companies that successfully demonstrate and deliver ethical public relation campaigns.