Indian PR Forum drafts conduct guidelines for PR professionals

 31st May 2013    Good and Bad PR 
 Vikram Kharvi

As the saying goes, every action has a reaction. Following a senior journalist posting an unpleasant status on her Facebook about a PR professional, which certainly caused uproar in the PR fraternity, Indian PR forum took it upon themselves to turn a negative action into a positive reaction. 

It isn't the first time PR people have been mocked by the media, so Indian PR forum, India’s largest online forum of public relations and corporate communications professionals, have decided to create a “Code of Conduct for PR Professionals” – in order to help the sector gain more respect amongst the media and society in general. The guidelines will include behavioural and ethical aspects, with some Do’s and Don’ts when dealing with media. 

IPRF are asking their 3000+ members and other PR professionals to send in their suggestions for the "Code of Conduct" to indianprforum@gmail.com before 10th June 2013. Thereafter the suggestions will be collated and studied by industry experts who will draft the Indian PR Industry’s “Code of Conduct” and set behavioural guidelines. This will then be put up on various forums for review and feedback.

IPRF have noticed that the media's animosity towards the PR industry is down to the lack of training for young budding professionals before they start pitching to the media. Because mistakes are made by young PROs when communicating with the media, this can be generalised and impressed onto the entire PR community. With this in mind, IPRF are planning to start an education drive across India to train budding professionals about the expected behaviour to be used in their day-to-day working life, this will give them a clear understanding on the way the media works and teach them the professional demeanour that is expected from them.