TheFifth

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were that public relations practitioners have to be aware of the legal risks involved in their daily roles, familiarize themselves with litigation issues and be adept at tackling legal problems. Practitioners should address issues with an agile mind when dealing with contempt law, contract law, defamation and intellectual property law.

Practitioners should engage a professional legal advisor when in doubt or when planning public relations strategies, as any mistakes made might inevitably sabotage a company’s good reputations, positive images, strong relationships and public relations campaigns.


The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that ethics plays a vital role especially when an organisation has to win the publics’ trust and build reputation for itself. The demand for moral responsibility from organisations suggests organisations should take steps to enhance community demands and exercise corporate ethics. Public relations practitioners have to face ethical challenges(interpersonal, organizational and stakeholder) and make crucial judgements.

Ethics concerned should not only be professional and institutional but also personal. Public relations practitioners should serve the public’s interest and incorporate that into their organisations’ activities and campaigns.

The Potter Box can be used to deal with ethical conflicts when factoring situation, values, principles and loyalties involved.

An example would be the National Kidney Foundation(NKF) embezzlement case which happened three years ago. The case of embezzlement reflected badly on NKF which has since been infamously known, deters publics to leave donations and left everyone talking about how charitable organisations might all be out to cheat.

I believe that as public relations practitioners, they should be honest, respectful, caring, responsible, accountable and uphold standards of integrity, these traits will in turn reflect in the values of an organisation and it’s activites.