Bite Size Comms

Is it ethically sound to strategically release negative news when the media is likely to be preoccupied with bigger stories? This practice, often seen in government communications, contradicts the transparency, integrity, and honesty elements of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ Code of Conduct. The Government Communications Service is a member of the PRCA, which has a similar code of conduct that covers member organisations.

In 2001, Jo Moore, a special adviser to the then Secretary of State for Transport, suggested that the 11 September terrorist attacks in America offered a “very good day to get out anything we want to bury”.

The home affairs editors at the main UK national newspapers have been regularly criticising government communications, especially the Home Office Press Team, for continuing to bury bad news. Seven of them – all rival publications, remember – signed a joint letter of complaint about the latest burial of bad news. On 29 February 2024, when the Angiolini Inquiry into Sarah Everard’s murder by a serving policeman was published, the Home Office used it as an opportunity late that night to quietly release a number of reports that were damaging to the government.

The practice of burying bad news has apparently been going on for years. In March 2023, journalists from national newspapers met officials from the Home Office to discuss what they saw as failings in that department’s communications operation. The editors of those newspapers say that the practice has got worse.

The editor’s recent letter says, “You sought to obscure one set of failures by the Home Office with a second set of failures, for which the department is also ultimately responsible.

It was not an opportunistic seizure of an external event, as in 2001, but a calculated manipulation of a news ‘grid’ which you oversee.

Outside Whitehall, in any normal walk of life, actions such this would be the basis for disciplinary action, castigation or deep shame.”

Ouch!

Every CIPR member has to sign the code of conduct and thereby agree to it. Although the CIPR can only dismiss an individual from membership if found to breach the code, and the PRCA can do the same with a member organisation, the investigation is taken seriously. A barrister oversees the case for the CIPR. Some years ago, I was a witness defending someone who eventually was found not guilty. Although the process was bruising, upholding ethics is terribly important for the profession of public relations.

If we want the practice of public relations to be truly regarded as a profession, we need to up our game on ethical behaviour.

[Photo by Andres Siimon on Unsplash]