In today’s post, I am writing you about the importance of ethics in public relations. What is ethics in general, ethics of public communication and codes of ethics in Croatia? So if you are interested in some of these things please keep reading.

What is ethics? If you start researching the definition you will find many, some are longer than this post and some are short and simple. I decided to give you the short version that is easy to understand and remember.The term comes from the Greek word ethos which means practice (Theaker, 2007). The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. So we can say ethics is the study of standards of conduct. When it comes to public relations discipline, ethics include values such as honesty, openness, loyalty, fair-mindedness, respect, integrity and forthright communication.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/395402042255482936/

Public relations (PR) are the result of what we do, what we say and what others say about us (Theaker, 2007). So a big part of doing public relations is connected with communication with our audience. While working in public relations area, you can often find yourself not knowing how to act because your client offer you something that is not ethical for you. That is why codes of ethics help public relations employees. I remember taking a subject called Ethics and NGO at my university where we talked about codes of ethics and how are public communications regulated in Croatia. In Croatia ethics of public communication includes subjects (which are media professionals, advertisers, PR, audiences) and mass media (their job is to educate, inform, entertain). There are three legal regulations and three ethical regulations that cover ethics of public communication.

„Legal regulations are:

1. Constitution of the Republic of Croatia
2. The Law on Public Communication
3. Media Law

Ethical regulations are:

1. The Code of Honor of Croatian Journalist (Croatian Journalists’ Association)
2. The Croatian Code of Ethics in Public Relations (Croatian Public Relations Association)
3. The Code of Advertising and Market Communication (Croatian Association of Market Communications Companies)“ (Lecture Codes of ethics, University of Applied Sciences Vern’, 2017).

Here is infographic about codes of ethics in Croatia.

I would like to know which codes of ethics are used in your country when it comes to public communication? Was this post helpful? Please comment down below and let me know.

Author: Matea Brajković

Sources:

http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/

https://instituteforpr.org/ethics-and-public-relations/

Theaker A. (2007). The Public Relations Handbook. Zagreb: Croatian Public Relations Association

Lecture Codes of ethics, University of Applied Sciences Vern’, 2017.