Public Relations and the Law (Part 1) Principles of Public Relations Ragas

Public relations and the law Public relations professionals must be aware of the various laws and government agencies that impact what they do: A PR professional can be held legally liable if they provide advice or tacitly support an illegal activity of a client or employer The courts have ruled on more than one occasion that PR firms can not hide behind the “well, the client told me so…” defense

Public relations and the law The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees “freedom of speech” Commercial speech, such as advertising and publicity (i.e. PR) materials, does not have the same First Amendment protection (unlike for example, journalism and news) Courts have ruled that the following constitute commercial speech: Advertisements Product news releases Brochures Other promotional vehicles

Libel and Defamation Defamation: any false statement about a person that creates public hatred, ridicule, contempt or inflicts injury on reputation. Libel = printed falsehood Slander = oral falsehood If it is a public figure (celebrity, politician, athlete), they must also prove the false statement was made with malice It is harder for corporations to file and win defamation suits – but this doesn’t mean they don’t try! (also file suits to try and intimidate) S.L.A.P. P. lawsuits GM sued Dateline over exploding gas tanks

Avoiding libel suits Fully accurate information, and a delicate choice of words, must be used in news releases Ex. The old, employee left “for personal reasons to spend more time with their family” Be careful about making unflattering comments about the competitors’ products Statements should be truthful with factual evidence to back them up Independent verification AT&T lawsuit against Verizon over coverage maps F.T.C. – POM Wonderful lawsuit over POM’s marketing claims

Avoiding invasion of privacy PR professionals should avoid publishing anything that might embarrass an employee or subject them to peer ridicule Get a signed release if an employee photo is used in external PR or marketing materials Added precaution is to provide financial compensation For media inquiries on employees, it is ok to: confirm job title, job description and status; do not provide personal info (salary, marital status, memberships, job performance, etc.) The employee may volunteer personal info