1. DA010 - Professional Diploma in Public Relations - COMM6024EP
Media Relations and New Media
Technology (2011/10)
Lecture 9
Media law: ethics, privacy, and social
responsibility
Developed and Presented by
Roy Ying, Msc., B.Comm.
Note: Pictures used in this power point file
is for academic Purpose only

2. Table of Content
• Relevant laws
• PR Code of Ethics (example from PRSA)
• Building media relations in an open,
honest and fair manner
• Protecting the privacy of your personal
data, sources of news, client’s information,
and sensitive information.
• Developing a CSR strategy as part of the
company’s overall media plan

3. Laws related to media relations
• Freedom of press and publication are
enshrined in Article 27 of the Basic Law
and are also protected by the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) under Article 39 of the Basic Law.
• There is no law called "media law" in Hong
Kong. Instead, the media are governed by
statutory laws.

4. The relevant statutes…
• Registration of Local Newspapers Ordinance (Cap. 268), provides
for the registration of local newspapers and news agencies and the
licensing of newspaper distributors.
• Books Registration Ordinance (Cap. 142) (Cap. 106), provides for
the registration and preservation of copies of books first printed,
produced or published in Hong Kong.
• Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106), makes better provision
for the licensing and control of telecommunications,
telecommunications services and telecommunications apparatus
and equipment.
• Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Cap. 390)
controls and classifies articles which consist of or contain material
that is obscene or indecent. Obscene Articles Tribunals are
established to determine whether an article is obscene or indecent.
• Broadcasting Authority Ordinance (Cap. 391), provides for the
establishment and functions of a Broadcasting Authority.
• Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562), licenses companies to provide
broadcasting services and regulate the provision of broadcasting
services by licensees

5. What about surveillance?

6. PRSA Code of Ethics
The Code Principles advise professionals to:
• Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and
truthful information.
• Foster informed decision making through open
communication.
• Protect confidential and private information.
• Promote healthy and fair competition among
professionals.
• Avoid conflicts of interest.
• Work to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.

7. PRSA Code of Ethics
Tactical strategies ask that PR professionals should:
• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Reveal sponsors for represented causes and interests.
• Act in the best interest of clients or employers.
• Disclose financial interests in a client’s organization.
• Safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of clients and
employees.
• Follow ethical hiring practices to respect free and open competition.
• Avoid conflicts between personal and professional interests.
• Decline representation of clients requiring actions contrary to the
Code.
• Accurately define what public relations activities can accomplish.
• Report all ethical violations to the appropriate authority.

8. GIS is the same as the PR
department of major corporations

9. Editorial sovereignty

10. Protecting your source
• Be judicious about promising
confidentiality:
– If your source demands confidentiality and
your reporting requires the source, make sure
you intend to maintain confidentiality if you
agree. If you later decide you wish to reveal
your source's identity, your source may be
able to sue you if you break your promise.

11. Protecting your source
• Keep secrets secret
– Once you have obtained information from a
confidential source, keep the source's identity
secret. It might be tempting to talk about a juicy piece
of information you have discovered with your relatives,
friends, or co-workers. As a practical matter, the more
people who know the information, the more likely it is
to be revealed. Moreover, if you reveal some
information about your source's identity, you may be
precluded from protecting the information in the future.

12. Protecting your source
• Consider where you publish your work
– Where you publish your work can have an
impact on your ability to protect your sources
and newsgathering information. For instance,
in some countrie you can only invoke the
privilege to protect your sources if you publish
in traditional print or broadcast media. In other
countries, you need only publish through an
entity that regularly distributes news.

13. 7 practical tips to keep sources

14. 1. Don’t send confidential mail
• You only need to open an email account (Gmail
or Yahoo, for example) and give (orally) the
username and password to the intended
recipient. You then save the message as a draft
without sending it. The recipient will only have to
log into the same account and read the draft
message.
• This prevents the mail being relayed through
several servers and being copied or intercepted
as it goes.

15. 2. When sending an e-mail is
unavoidable...
• Sending a mail without protecting it is like
sending a postcard without an envelope. To
counteract someone's curiosity (i.e. a hostile
government), you can encrypt the message.
Outlook offers this option.
• Even safer than an email are instant messages,
which are even less likely to be monitored.

16. Encrypt message in Outlook

17. 3. Protect your computer
• Before securing your operating system, you
must be sure of its reliability and that of the
software hosted on it. Free software or the Linux
operating system, for example, come from
different programmers, which makes the
software more trustworthy.
• You can also use different workspaces
according to the sensitivity of the files. Having
different storage, multiple operating systems, or
even using multiple computers can prevent data
leakage

18. 4. Make your files untraceable
• You must know how to get rid of unwanted or
confidential files. A simple click on "Empty
Trash" is not enough. Overwriting the file several
times on the space it occupies with random data
is the best way to make it disappear.
You can also encrypt your data, making them
incomprehensible to one who has no password.
Sotfwares like TrueCrypt on Windows, and
FileVault on Mac OS X are quite effective.

19. 5. Be wary of your mobile phone
• Telephone surveillance is the most obvious and
fashionable way to keep an eye on journalists.
• Journalists should take simple precautions, such
as making calls from a pay phone.
• You can also buy a smart phone sim card in a
mobile shop and use it temporarily for high-risk
calls.
• Using internet-telephony software is another
solution. This is not a perfect solution, however,
because authorities indicate that they are able to
listen in on Skype conversations.

20. 6. Avoid leaving evidence at
your desk.
• Renting a good safe, or placing
confidential data with someone you trust,
is a more cautious approach
• Don’t rely on your lockable cabinet, or
office door. Janitors, secretaries, and
office assistants can easily get access to
documents sitting on your desk without
looking suspicious.

21. 7. Paper - a safe choice.
• When a journalist’s mobile phone gets stolen, all his
sources or messages could be exposed. A computer
can be remotely monitored. A simple e-mail containing a
Trojan program could contaminate the computer with a
spyware
• Writing sensitive data or telephone numbers on paper
and keeping it in a safe place protects you from all of
these risks. And doing so reinforces the anonymity of
your informants and sources.
• It is important to note your contacts on paper and, if
necessary, rename, in a coded form, those who wish to
remain anonymous.

22. It’s worth defending
• It’s a fundamental principle in journalism

23. What is a CSR Policy?
A CSR Policy Defines:
• how an organisation does business
• its responsibilities to those with whom it
deals
• how it manages those responsibilities
Class:
Class:
•• Is CSR a
Is CSR a
PR strategy?
PR strategy?

24. What should a CSR Policy
cover?
As with an insurance policy a CSR policy
should cover all aspects of the business:
• Sales
• Products / services
• Marketing
• HR
• Financial responsibility and reporting
• Resource management

25. Why have a CSR Policy?
It’s more than a legal requirement. A properly
thought through CSR policy will benefit the
business. It:
• demonstrates a constructive corporate
assessment of how the organisation does
business
• establishes corporate values
• defines its responsibilities to those with whom it
deals
• highlights the rights of those it employs
• establishes corporate commitment to society
(community, environment etc)

26. Who are the Target Audiences?
• Analysts
• Business Partners
• Customers
• Employees
• Opinion Formers
• Regulators
• Shareholders
• Society in general (local, regional and
global)

27. Target Audiences: Analysts
For quoted companies the CSR policy:
• Provides corporate vision and values
• Addresses medium to longer term issues
• Enhances brand value
• It’s not all about share price.

28. Target Audiences: Business
Partners
Do they want to do business with you?
• Generates business confidence
• Demonstrates efficient management
• Differentiates you from competitors
• It’s not all about price.

29. Target Audiences: Customers
“We are all Greens now”
• Increasing consumer environmental and
ethical awareness
• Child labour
• A $ a day
• Green consumerism
• Fair Trade
• Ethical investment

30. Target Audiences: Employees
Do I want to work for you?
• Employees want to feel pride in the
organisation they work for.
• “I work for this really fantastic global
company that is slashing its way through
the Amazonian rain forest, using child
labour at 50 cents a day and making a
massive contribution to global warming”
• It’s not just about salaries and healthcare

31. Target Audiences: Opinion
Formers
Press and politicians have the ability to
make or break reputations. Their opinions
and comment influence
• consumers
• regulators

32. Target Audiences: Regulators
If markets do not conform to the highest
standards regulators can impose
• rules
• regulations
• restrictions
• Often to higher more demanding
standards and with the risk of “unintended
consequences”

33. Target Audiences: Shareholders
The growth in ethical funds and increased
awareness of CSR issues is increasingly
determining investment decisions by
individual and corporate investors.

34. Target Audiences: Society
• Increasingly companies and major
organisations are seen as corporate
citizens.
• Practicing what you preach impacts on
public perception and brand values.
• Are you a good corporate citizen?

35. So how do you communicate
CSR?
• Communicating a CSR policy will in part
depend on the size, business sector and
resources of the organisation.
• What works for one will not work for all.
• Audiences will inevitably vary for
organisations in the private, public or third
sectors.

36. Communications Tools
• Annual reports
• Corporate brochures
• Sales and marketing materials
• Advertising
• Point of sale materials
• Briefings

37. Communications Tools
• Direct mail •• It is really a PR
It is really a PR
tool and when
tool and when
• Staff training communicated
communicated
well, can add
well, can add
• Corporate identity value to the
value to the
organization
organization
• Web sites
• Media activities
• Public Affairs activities

38. Example - activities

39. Example - newsletter

40. Example - website

41. Corporate identity
• What do you think of these brands?

42. Reporting CSR:
CSR projects may be administered and
communicate achievements via:
• A dedicated CSR section or department
• The HR department
• Business development section
• Public Relations department
• Directly via CEO and / or Board of
Directors

43. Reporting Formats:
The ‘Triple Bottom Line’
This means expanding the traditional
reporting framework to take into account
performance in terms of:
• Social (People)
• Environmental (Planet), as well as
• Financial (Profit)

44. Reporting Formats:
The ‘Triple Bottom Line’
• Concept developed by John Elkington in
1994
• Expects organisations to be responsible to
‘stakeholders’ interests rather than
‘shareholders’ profit
• Related concepts:
– Full-cost accounting
– Social entrepreneurialism
– Social and natural capital

45. Conclusion
• CSR is not how you give away
money to the community, but
rather how your make money
from the community