The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is challenging the Presidential candidates to commit to maintaining the highest standards of ethical practice in their campaign communications by inviting them to make a formal pledge to abide by the PRSA Code of Ethics.
“The use of innuendo, incomplete information, surrogate messaging and character attacks, whether in political discourse or other forms of commercial free speech, raises serious concerns for our organization and its 32,000 members, each of whom signs a pledge to the PRSA Code of Ethics. In fact, ethical practice is the most important obligation of PRSA membership, and we maintain that our obligations extend not only to those we represent, but also to the publics they serve. We view the code as a model for other professions, organizations and professionals, including political campaigns.”
The PRSA is also inviting its own members to show their support for ethical campaign communications by signing up to a PRSA Facebook group – Clean & Fair Campaign 2008 . The association says that by joining this group its members are telling the political campaigns (and the media) …
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I want accurate, truthful and transparent information that will allow informed decision making.
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I want healthy and fair competition and an ethical climate fostering a robust political environment.
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I want confidential and private information protected.
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I want all those involved in the campaigns to avoid real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest.
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I want the campaigns to strengthen trust in the United States of America and its electoral process.
An opportunity, perhaps, for PRINZ to lead the way in a similar fashion on communication ethics during our election campaign?