Week 6 Chapters 4 and 5 Johnston and Zawawi

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were on some of the main legal considerations in Public Relations practice and how they can be best minimised.

Defamation aims to protect a person’s reputation; however rights of the individual must be balanced against public interest in terms of freedom and speech.

To bring an action in defamation a person must show that:
- the material was published
- they were identified in the publication
- the publication was defamatory

The three tests for defamation are:
- that the publication exposed the plaintiff to hatred, contempt or ridicule
- it lowered the plaintiff in the eyes of right-thinking members of the community
- it caused the plaintiff to be shunned or avoided, without moral blame

Defamation can take place unintentionally but one way to minimise the threat is to make positive rather than negative statements, and to also keep in mind that a person cannot be defamed unless they are identified.

Fair comment should not be prohibited provided that the comment is a comment and not an assertion of fact.
To maximise protection, PR practitioners should try to state the facts first and then draw conclusions from those facts.

Before embarking on any litigation one should assess:
-Will a legal win equate to a PR win?
-Have reputations been damaged?
-Will legal action expose you or your client to further disclosure?
-What are the likely costs of the litigation, taking into account any adverse publicity? (Todd 1997)

Copyright prevents people from unfairly exploiting others’ original work. Copyright cannot exist in ideas, but only in how ideas are expressed. E.g. a PR/advertising campaign only becomes copyright when that campaign is expressed with a specific slogan or logo etc.

There is no wording in the Copyright Act 1968 however, which reserves copyright to someone in particular, which is something a practitioner will have to clarify when negotiating contracts with clients in the creation of slogans, logos and other elements of campaigns.

To minimise breaches always acknowledge copyright, check the licence conditions of copyright material and do not copy designs, logos or graphics.

Contracts define the relationship between parties and are used in all facets of PR. The essential ingredients of a contract are: the offer, acceptance of that offer and considerations.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in the way that ethics play such a large role in PR decision making.

Values considered to be essential to ethical life are honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, caring for others, respect for others, responsible citizenship and the pursuit of excellence and accountability (Josephson Institute 2003).

I found it interesting to see that Johnston and Zawawi listed the five duties of PR professionals in the order of: oneself, the client, the employer, the profession and society.

Two points which particularly made me think about ethics in new ways were:

“When in doubt, ask ‘What if everyone did this deed?’” – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher.

“Turnbull posits that the most successful organisations in the next decades will be those which build trust by aspiring to authenticity and practicing transparency (2003:1). He says these concepts are rapidly becoming more important as societies react against past excesses and future uncertainties.” (Johnston and Zawawi 2004)