WEEK 6- The Legal Enviroment & Ethical Practice

Readings- Chapter 4 'The Legal Environment' & Chapter 5 'Ethical Practice'

When I think of law I think black and white. When I think of ethics I think grey. This weeks readings are foundations for ethical practice and the legal environment of PR. Breit the author of chapter 4 is also the author if the book Law and Ethics which is a required reading for another subject I am undertaking. Breit writes in a way, which is easy to understand legal terminology. When I first undertook PR as a subject I never thought of the legal implications that could be involved but like a doctor, teacher etc there is always legal implications when dealing with other people or organisations.

When a PR practitioner is making decisions they must assess the legal risks. They also must be aware of the tort of negligence (duty to client and publics) and tort of defamation (publications that harm an individuals reputation), contract law, contempt law (protecting the administration of law) and property law (Breit 2004:76).

As a PR practitioner always seek legal advice if you are unclear of your legal rights, legal responsibilities and legal disputes. It is essential the PR practitioner is aware of the concept of defamation and contempt. Defamation is basically a publication that can defame someone in a way that can ruin his or her reputation, as protecting a person’s reputation is a human right (Breit 2004:84).

Property law is something I was never aware of that would apply to a PR practitioner but obviously it does when running events in a venue that is not owned by your company that you are employed for but rather someone else. Property law refers to land and things affixed to land. Pr practitioners should be aware of the rights attaching to property ownership and occupation of land (Breit 2004:88).

Contract law is something that I have come across in my study years at high school. It was drummed into me that for a contract to be established there needs to be an offer, acceptance of that offer and consideration. Contracts define the relationships between two parties. A practitioner will come across many contracts in their PR career, contracts between the practitioner and the campaign, contracts between the practitioner and their employer etc (Breit 2004:95).

Contempt is an area I am all too familiar with as it was an area that I did an assessment task for. I did not come across information in relation to PR practitioners as such but as journalist if you publish a court case that in anyway impedes the administration of law and the outcome of the case whether it be guilty or innocent the can journalist can be charged with contempt. The main points to remember for this weeks reading is to beware of the legal implications as a PR practitioner and when in doubt of your legal obligations seek legal advice.

Chapter 5 deals with ethics, which is an area that I have never been keen on as it is not simply black and white. I also did my PR presentation on ethics and the amount of research and different scenarios I read about made me release as an aspiring PR practitioner I will encounter situations where I too will have make ethical decisions. McCoy sums up as ethics being the right things but I have to question this, as sometimes the right thing is not that clear or that simple. So many factors come into play such as your own morals and values compared to what your employer wants.

Seib and Fitzpatrick discuss that there are five duties of a PR practitioner, oneself, the client, the employer, the profession and society. I would order these five duties in theory as oneself, society (as oneself is part of society), and the other three falling in behind. But in practice as a PR practitioner would I put society last and prefer to make my client happy and maybe deceive society? There are many hypothetical answers to this but I would not be able to make a decision until actually faced with real life ethical situations.

There are also ethical frameworks that have been constructed by PRIA such as the 15-point codes of ethics. I think a key point to remember from this weeks reading is that as a PR practitioner when making decisions think of all the other stakeholders that are involved and remember maintaining a credible reputation. Once a credible reputation is ruined due to poor ethical decisions, it is hard to reconstruct.

References:
McCoy, L. (2004). Ethical Practice. In Johnston,J. & Zawawi, C.Public Relations: Theory and Practice.(2nd ed). (pp. 104-133). Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Breit, R. (2004). The Legal Environment. In Johnston,J. & Zawawi, C.(2004).Public Relations: Theory and Practice. (2nd ed). (pp. 75-103).Sydney: Allen & Unwin.