Opinion – Importance of Ethics in Public Relations

 

‘Ethics’ refers to being honest in your work and being true to your profession. As a student, cheating in the examination was considered unethical. Something my dad always told me not to do. But quite honestly, I must have asked an answer or two over the years. Growing up, looking at how the world lightly takes ethics and cares nothing about it, it feels bad.

In my UG days, we had a very eminent journalist Mr Sandeep Sahu for a guest lecture on Mass Communication Ethics. A man who lives a simple life, Mr Sahu told us to understand the decaying state of ethics in this field and hoped that we won’t decay it further. He took us through the competitiveness that is faced by mass media for higher readership and how they tweak articles to suit the advertisers. Well, in the end, money matters. I am an avid follower and reader of his writings, be it in BBC, Outlook India, or OTV. One thing that I took away from his lecture is that ‘you know when you are unethical’. It is on us to correct it or continue like that.

The PR industry has a lot to do with the mainstream media along with other forms of communication. The amount of Fake News peddled on social media is way more than the genuine news. I am sure, now that you reading this article, you must also be wondering along with me, why do people do this. Where is the ethics of the producer of such content creators?

Ethics is important in any field, and most in ours. Be it for our clients or on the ask of our boss, we should never compromise on the ethics. It is important as it carries the reputation of ourselves, our firm and our clients. There are times we run out of ideas or content, but copying it from another, changing it a bit, and using it should not be done. While pitching a story to a journalist, we should not offer them any monetary benefits, either directly or by coupons or advertisement promises. The very thought of getting work done by any means is wrong. As communicators, when we speak, we speak for the mass. Do we really want to send out things that have unethical elements in them?

There can be many variations as to why is it important to stay ethical, but for me, the most important is facing myself the next morning. I can’t even sleep, because I know what I’ve done, irrespective of it being noticed or not. I would ask you, do it for yourself, if not for anyone else. Once you lose respect, it is very difficult to regain.