April is APR Month, when PRSA and other organizations honor Accreditation in Public Relations. This credential certifies your drive, professionalism and respect for 11 communications principles, setting you apart from your peers and positioning you as a leader and mentor in the competitive PR profession. Achieving the APR conveys that you are “committed to lifelong learning and the highest ethical practice of public relations.”
To me, the ethical practice of public relations is not just a code of ethics to frame and hang on the wall. Its purpose is to help practitioners anticipate and accommodate ethical challenges that may arise. Fundamentally, it is about one’s behavior, words and deeds, to earn and maintain public trust.
I recall my first serious post-college job interview, at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Press Relations. The Vietnam War was still raging, despite the Paris Peace Accords. Being a product of the times, I asked during the interview: “Do you ever have to lie?” The office manager and press officer who conducted the interview looked at each other, probably thinking, “Uh-oh, here comes trouble; what kind of question is that?”
One responded, “Well, we sometimes have to word our answers so that we’re not lying.” “Hmmm, a half-truth?” I asked myself. The rest of the interview went well, and I secured the job as a GS-4 Clerk Typist at one of the world’s most important foreign policy news centers. It launched me on a career of learning and observing how diplomats, other civil servants, and major U.S. and foreign media communicated U.S. policy to the nation and to global audiences on high-profile, controversial issues.
Some 10 years later, veteran correspondent Bernard Kalb, whom I knew from my job in the press office, was working on the other side of the camera as Department Spokesman and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Kalb was a no-nonsense, serious figure, having covered Vietnam and Indonesia for The New York Times and traveled worldwide with Secretary Kissinger for CBS and NBC.
Then, in 1986, after two years as spokesman for Secretary of State George Shultz and the department, he resigned in protest of the U.S. government’s alleged “disinformation” program directed at Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi. “I am dissenting from the reported ‘disinformation’ program,” he said. The Los Angeles Times reported that Kalb was resigning because he was “worried about faith in America… American credibility… and on a much lower level, my own credibility… I do not want my own credibility to be caught up, to be subsumed, by this controversy, so I’ve taken the step of stepping down,” he said.
Kalb repeatedly said he could not provide any information on the existence of the “disinformation” campaign. “My resignation does not endow me with sudden freedom,” he said, indicating that he might be constrained by adherence to government secrecy rules. Kalb said he had never been asked to lie on behalf of the Administration on the program.
I share this story as a reminder of what it means to be an honest communicator who aims to earn and keep the public’s trust. In these difficult times, who among us has the guts to resign rather than to lie? At what stage of your career does ethics begin to influence your actions?
The PRSA Code of Ethics should give each of us the strength to stand up for honesty, integrity and high standards. It begins by saying, “We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts and viewpoints to aid informed public debate.” Then it lists and explains the principles:
- Advocacy
- Expertise
- Independence
- Loyalty
- Fairness
- Free Flow of Information
- Competition
- Disclosure of Information
- Safeguarding Confidences
- Conflicts of Interest
- Enhancing the Profession
Whether you are an APR or not, and whether you are a novice in public relations or an experienced communicator, I hope this Code of Ethics helps you navigate the challenges you encounter in pursuit of honesty in communications.
Marjorie Weisskohl, APR, is the CEO of All Seasons PR, which she founded in 2020 after a successful federal public affairs career spanning four agencies: the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of the Interior. She actively participates in PRSA, including mentoring APR candidates.
Photo credit: sewscream studio
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