Lies, damn lies and factual inaccuracies

Being in a communication role for an organisation is a position of responsibility. I felt it when I was working in house and I see it now when I work with businesses and organisations. This is why both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the Public Relations and Communication Association (PRCA) focus heavily on the importance of ethics and ethical behaviour from communicators.

You are the person answering media questions, providing updates about what the organisation is doing, and finding ways to present and represent the business. It is your statements that will be used, your posts that will be seen on social media, and your communications that will be sent to employees. It is why integrity is so critical to PR and communication.

There are always going to be occasions where senior people lie or fail to provide the relevant detail to beleaguered communication staff. Sometimes this manipulation will not be known until much later and sometimes we may never know that this happened. It is why communicators need to ask questions, to probe and to seek clarification if they are unhappy about a line they are being given. This is not easy.

At times I have outright asked senior people in the organisation I was working in or for whether they had provided the full details. Had they left out important details? Were they being open and honest with me? These are questions that are not as simple to ask as it may seem. Once you have the answer it leaves you in a difficult position. Do you stay if you find you have been lied to? Do you lie if you are asked to? How can you continue working in that same organisation if you fear lies or factual inaccuracies?

It is easier as a seasoned communicator to be prepared to say no, to expose unacceptable requests and to walk away from things you are unhappy about. As a junior in a team or a new employee it is much harder to be comfortable in walking away. Why is this important?

There have been a lot of articles and comments criticising Number 10s press office for comments and statements last week. But it was not always clear exactly what was taking place behind closed doors. Perhaps there were people fearful they may lose a job. Perhaps there were people new in service who didn’t feel able to challenge. Perhaps they were believing everything they were being told. I also know that there may have been people deliberately creating statements or developing words to confuse or misinform. For me such people are not communicators.

When we take up a job in PR and communication for any organisation it comes with responsibilities. We have our own ethics and values and need to stand by these. The past week in Number 10 risks damaging the whole PR and communication profession. We will all have to be clearer in our ethical approach and demonstrate what we stand for. Honest and integrity are so fundamental to communication without it we lose trust and the organisation will ultimately be dealt a significant blow.

Amanda Coleman is a crisis communication expert and consultant, Founder of Amanda Coleman Communication and the author of Crisis Communication Strategies.

This post was originally published on her Amandacomms blog.

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