The German Council for PR, which includes the German PR Assn., the Federal Assn. of German Press Officers, and the Assn. of German PR Agencies, has an active ethics enforcement program that issues acquittals, warnings and rebukes of accused organizations and may provide specific rules of conduct in controversial cases.
The Council in theory only evaluates the behavior of organizations but in practice the names of individuals are involved.
Moritz Hunzinger, a PR practitioner, in 2002 was linked to two romantic affairs in which a former minister of defense and a member of the German Parliament were involved.
The Council, “after detailed research and hearings,” publicly “rebuked” Hunzinger, saying he did “considerable damage to the reputation of PR.”
Horst Avenarius |
In another case, an agency head who “laughed” at a rebuke “lost several contracts and eventually his agency,” said Horst Avenarius, Ph.D., Council chair, in a 14-page, singled-spaced statement on the Council’s ethics enforcement program.
Another case involved charges against an individual who was the head of a supervisory board who had “acted in his own behalf and not that of his company.”
'Stonewalling' Is Considered
The Council also evaluates a defendant’s omissions, concealments and the consequences resulting from “non-communication.
One reason for the ethics enforcement program, said
Avenarius, chairman of the Council, was that the PR guild in Germany had a “notoriously bad reputation.”
PR Society in the U.S. removed 'any sort of punishment' for ethics violations in 2002, said Avenarius. |
Avenarius took note of the new code of the PR Society in the U.S. in 2002 that removed “any sort of punishment” but said the German Council “shall continue with its penal measures.
One reprimanded organization, Avenarius said, publicly accepted the Council’s verdict in their statement after the announcement of it May 9, 2006.
Said the statement: “We accept the unfavorable comment on account of product placement established by the Council against our input towards the ARD television series Marienhof. We regret this mistake.”
Legal Action Threatened
One corporate defendant threatened to take legal action against the Council “in case the Council made in any way negative or reproving remarks about his company.”
Undeterred, the Council announced its censure against the organization which “refrained from raising charges despite the heightened public attention.”
“Warnings” are provided when there is not enough evidence for a “rebuke” or if the accused organization “corrects its behavior after the admonition by the Council.
All organizations that might engage in such behavior are warned, said Avenarius.
Media Boycott Studied
A company accused of a press boycott was interviewed and its arguments were reported “in detail” by the Council.
Said Avenarius: “Journalists who later did research about a similar case could consequently obtain information about a comparable boycott on the Council’s website.”
While deliberations of the German Press Council on ethics matters are “private,” the PR Council “publishes many more details about its trials,” said Avenarius.
Grunig’s Work in Ethics Cited
James Grunig, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, is the “grand authority for German PR scholars,” says Avenarius, who “largely adopted his four basic models of communication.”
James Grunig |
They especially like Grunig’s feeling that “only symmetrical two-way communication contained within itself the requisite respect for the communication partner and could thus be morally justifiable. Consequently, PR practitioners attributed a high degree of significance to dialogues. They praised the two-way symmetrical model of communication in their official statements and in interviews.”
Said Avenarius: “If dialogue, discourse, and debate are the appropriate rules of our democratic system—and their outcome is often a ballot, i.e., a power issue—then transparency is the lifeblood of our information society. Modern societies thrive on transparent information.”
This includes, he said, “transparency without any reservation in the accounting of past events involving the misconduct of an organization.”
He made reference efforts by German companies to conceal “their behavior in connection with forced labor during World War II or the expropriation of Jewish possessions.” |