CODE OF ETHICS FOR GR PRACTITIONERS

Ethical practice is the most important obligation of a GR Practitioner

ADVOCACY

The GR Practitioner serves the public interest by acting as a responsible advocate for those he/she represents. The GR Practitioner provides a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate.

HONESTY

The GR Practitioner adheres to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those he/she represents and in communicating with public officials and the public.

EXPERTISE

The GR Practitioner acquires and responsibly uses specialized knowledge and experience. He/she advances the profession through continued professional development, research, and education. He/she builds mutual understanding, credibility, and relationships among a wide array of institutions and audiences.

INDEPENDENCE

The GR Practitioner provides objective counsel to those he/she represents and is accountable for his/her actions.

LOYALTY

The GR Practitioner is faithful to those he/she represents, while honouring  obligation to serve the public interest.

FAIRNESS

The GR Practitioner deals fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, the media, public officials and the general public. He/she respects all opinions and support the right of free expression.

Provisions of Conduct

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Core Principle: Protecting and advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information is essential to serving the public interest and contributing to informed decision making in a democratic society.

Intent

• To maintain the integrity of relationships with the media, government officials, and the public
• To aid informed decision-making.

Guidelines:

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Preserve the integrity of the process of communication.
• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which the practitioner is responsible.
• Preserve the free flow of unprejudiced information when giving or receiving gifts by ensuring that gifts are nominal, legal, and infrequent.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under this Provision

• Entertaining a public official beyond legal limits and/or in violation of government reporting requirements.

COMPETITION

Core Principle: Promoting healthy and fair competition among professionals preserves an ethical climate while fostering a robust business environment.

Intent

• To promote respect and fair competition among GR professionals.
• To serve the public interest by providing the widest choice of practitioner options.

Guidelines

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Follow ethical hiring practices designed to respect free and open competition without deliberately undermining a competitor.
• Preserve intellectual property rights in the marketplace.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under This Provision:

• A GR Practitioner employed by a "client organisation" shares helpful information with a counseling firm that is competing with others for the organization's business.
• A member spreads malicious and unfounded rumors about a competitor in order to alienate the competitor's clients and employees in a ploy to recruit people and business.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Core Principle:  Open communication fosters informed decision making in a democratic society.

Intent

• To build trust with public officials by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making.

Guidelines

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which he/she is responsible.
• Investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented.
• Reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented.
• Disclose financial interest (such as stock ownership) in a client's organization.
• Avoid deceptive practices.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under this Provision

•  Front groups: A GR Practitioner implements "grass roots" campaigns or letter-writing campaigns to legislators on behalf of undisclosed interest groups.
• Lying by omission: A practitioner for a corporation knowingly fails to release financial information, giving a misleading impression of the corporation's performance.
• A GR Practitioner discovers inaccurate information disseminated via a website or media kit and does not correct the information.
• A GR Practitioner deceives public officials by employing people to pose as volunteers to speak at public hearings and participate in "grass roots" campaigns.

SAFEGUARDING CONFIDENCES

Core Principle: Client trust requires appropriate protection of confidential and private information.

Intent

• To protect the privacy rights of clients, organizations, and individuals by safeguarding confidential information.

Guidelines

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of present, former, and prospective clients and employees.
• Protect privileged, confidential, or insider information gained from a client or organization.
• Immediately advise an appropriate authority if a GR Practitioner discovers that confidential information is being divulged by an employee of a client company or organization.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under This Provision:

• A GR Practitioner changes jobs, takes confidential information, and uses that information in the new position to the detriment of the former employer.
• A GR Practitioner  intentionally leaks proprietary information to the detriment of some other party.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Core Principle:  Avoiding real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest builds the trust of clients, employers, and the publics.

Intent

• To earn trust and mutual respect with clients or employers.
• To build trust with public officials by avoiding or ending situations that put one's personal or professional interests in conflict with society's interests.

Guidelines

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Act in the best interests of the client or employer, even subordinating his/her personal interests.
• Avoid actions and circumstances that may appear to compromise good business judgment or create a conflict between personal and professional interests.
• Disclose promptly any existing or potential conflict of interest to affected clients or organizations.
• Encourage clients and customers to determine if a conflict exists after notifying all affected parties.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under This Provision:

• The GR Practitioner fails to disclose that he or she has a strong financial interest in a client's chief competitor.
• The GR Practitioner represents a "competitor company" or a "conflicting interest" without informing a prospective client.

ENHANCING THE PROFESSION

Core Principle: GR professionals work constantly to strengthen the public's trust in the profession.

Intent

• To build respect and credibility with the public for the GR profession.
• To improve, adapt and expand professional practices.

Guidelines:

A GR Practitioner shall:

• Acknowledge that there is an obligation to protect and enhance the profession.
• Keep informed and educated about practices in the profession to ensure ethical conduct.
• Actively pursue personal professional development.
• Decline representation of clients or organizations that urge or require actions contrary to this Code.
• Accurately define what GR activities can accomplish.
• Counsel subordinates in proper ethical decision making.
• Require that subordinates adhere to the ethical requirements of the Code.
• Report practices that fail to comply with the Code, to the appropriate authority.

REMARKS 

Rules of Professional Conduct are rules of reason.They should be interpreted with reference to the purposes of GR representation and of the law itself. Some of the Rules may be imperatives, cast in the terms "shall" or "shall not." These define proper conduct for purposes of professional discipline. Others, generally cast in the term "may," are permissive and define areas under the Rules in which the GR Practitioner has discretion to exercise professional judgement. No disciplinary action should be taken when the GR Practitioner chooses not to act or acts within the bounds of such discretion. Other Rules define the nature of relationships between the GR Practitioner and others. The Rules are thus partly obligatory and disciplinary and partly constitutive and descriptive in that they define a GR Practitioner’s professional role.

The Rules presuppose a larger context shaping the GR Practitioner’s role. That context includes rules and statutes governing the interaction of public officials with GR Practitioners, laws defining specific obligations of GR Practitioners.

Compliance with the Rules, depends primarily upon understanding and voluntary compliance, secondarily upon reinforcement by peer and public opinion and finally, when necessary, upon enforcement through disciplinary proceedings. The Rules do not, however, exhaust the moral and ethical considerations that should inform a GR Practitioner, for no worthwhile human activity can be completely defined by rules. The Rules simply provide a framework for the ethical practice of GR.

The determination of the GR Practitioner’s authority and responsibility, is based on whether a client-GR Practitioner relationship exists. Most of the duties flowing from the client-GR Practitioner relationship attach only after the client has requested the GR Practitioner to render GR services and the GR Practitioner has agreed to do so. But there are some duties, such as that of confidentiality, that attach when the GR Practitioner agrees to consider whether a client-GR Practitioner relationship shall be established. Whether a client-GR Practitioner relationship exists for any specific purpose can depend on the circumstances and may be a question of fact.

Failure to comply with an obligation or prohibition imposed by a Rule is a basis for invoking the disciplinary process. The Rules presuppose that disciplinary assessment of a GR Practitioner’s conduct will be made on the basis of the facts and circumstances as they existed at the time of the conduct in question and in recognition of the fact that a GR Practitioner often has to act upon uncertain or incomplete evidence of the situation. Moreover, the Rules presuppose that whether or not discipline should be imposed for a violation, and the severity of a sanction, depend on all the circumstances, such as the willfulness and seriousness of the violation, extenuating factors and whether there have been previous violations.

Violation of a Rule should not itself give rise to a cause of action against a GR Practitioner nor should it create any presumption in such a case that a duty on the part of the GR Practitioner has been breached.

Rules are designed to provide guidance to GR Practitioners and to provide a structure for regulating conduct.

Rules are just a basis for a GR Practitioner’s self-assessment, or for sanctioning a GR Practitioner under the administration of a disciplinary authority. Since Rules do establish standards of conduct by GR Practitioners, a GR Practitioner’s violation of a Rule may be evidence of breach of the applicable standard of conduct.