Friends and members of the St. Louis chapter of PRSA pondered "Ethics and Communications- What is the 'right' thing to do?" during a luncheon at the Junior League. Charles Wood, APR, Fellow PRSA, spoke on the revised PRSA Code of Ethics and the decision-making process involved when ethics are in question. Wood is the Chairman of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards.

The new code of ethics defines six provisions and principles to help us understand our limits as public relations professionals. The principles include:

Free flow of information,
Fair competition,
Disclosure of information,
Safeguarding confidences,
Preventing conflicts of interest, and
Enhancing the profession.

Wood led attendees through a group exercise to evaluate an unethical situation and determine how it could have been handled in an ethical manner. The exercise helped illustrate one of Wood's major points - there is no black and white in the matter of ethics concerning public relations. But there are lots of grays.

The Omaha Herald newspaper executive said that ethics has become such a priority with PRSA that each district and even each chapter has an ethics officer and that any member struggling with an ethics issue should approach their chapter officer before taking any action. Liese Hutchison, shutchill@slu.edu is the St. Louis contact.

You'll find information about PRSA's Code of Ethics here on the St. Louis site and a more extensive review on the national site.