Mindful of the considerable and increasing influence and importance of public relations, ICCO members commit at all times to abide by the following 10 principles:
- To work ethically and in accordance with applicable laws;
- To observe the highest professional standards in the practice of public relations and communications;
- To respect the truth, dealing honestly and transparently with employees, colleagues, clients, the media, government and the public;
- To protect the privacy rights of clients, organisations, and individuals by safeguarding confidential information;
- To be mindful of their duty to uphold the reputation of the industry;
- To be forthcoming about sponsors of causes and interests and never engage in misleading practices such as “astroturfing”;
- To be aware of the power of social media, and use it responsibly;
- To never engage in the creation of or knowingly circulate fake news;
- To adhere to their Association’s Code of Conduct, be mindful of the Codes of Conduct of other countries, and show professional respect at all times;
- To take care that their professional duties are conducted without causing offence on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, origin, religion, disability or any other form of discrimination.
#POWERofETHICS activities:
- @PRTalkUK twitter discussion on the power of ethics in PR tonight (3rd September) at 20:30. Francis Ingham MPRCA, Chief Executive, ICCO and Director General, PRCA, will be taking part. Just use the hashtag #prtalk to join in
- PROCOM: Internal communications: tools for the employee experience, 4th September, Helsinki
- Holmes Report: Ethics Roundtable with H+K Strategies on 12th September, Singapore
- PRCA Events
- Responsible Influencer Marketing, 12th September, London
- PRCA National Conference on 21st September, London entitled ‘Embracing Change’ tackling ethical issues that the communications world is dealing with, reconsidering the social value of PR
- Ethics in Communications Webinars, Online: 15% off all upcoming ‘Ethics in PR and Communications’ courses this month. To receive the discount, email training@prca.org.uk or training@icco.com
- How are your ethics? 2nd October, Birmingham
- ICCO Global Summit 4-5 October, Dublin. The Summit will include sessions on Combating Mistrust, Regional Ethical Challenges, Advocacy, and Responsible Data Science amongst many other topics
- Helsinki Declaration Advocates, we’re encouraging PR pros to revisit the ten principles and raise standards collectively by advocating them to colleagues and stakeholders
- Follow Ethics Blogs being added throughout September
- Join the conversation on Twitter using @iccopr #POWERofETHICS
We invite ICCO members and organisations, non-members, and other professional public relations communities to join in support of these principles.
If you would like to find out more, please contact us at info@iccopr.com