Ten international agencies, including Ketchum, and two local Mainland China agencies, have jointly signed up to a new Code of Business Conduct to pledge their support for professional PR ethics in China. The signing ceremony was held at the Shanghai International PR Summit held in Shanghai in November where Ketchum was represented by Chris Liu, partner and chief business officer. The significance of this declaration was also recognized in January when the signatories were awarded with the Gold Standard Award for Business Leadership and Development by PublicAffairsAsia magazine.

Ketchum was also a founder member of the Council of PR Firms of Hong Kong accreditation process and has been an accredited agency since 2003. As such, Ketchum Hong Kong abides by the Council’s Code of Practice and Ethics.

Sidebar: Code of Business Conduct for China

To promote the continued healthy and sustainable development of the public relations industry in China, we, the undersigned, as leading public relations industry players, collectively call on all the service providers in the industry to pledge to subscribe to the following Code of Business Conduct in the course of providing service to clients and any other activities. Companies and employees shall refuse to undertake work that requires us to compromise the principles of the Code of Conduct.

1. The spirit and letter of all laws, regulations and business ethics of the People’s Republic of China will be upheld.

2. Clients shall be served to the highest professional standards of excellence.

3. Companies and their employees shall deal fairly, openly and honestly with the media and the public. Companies and employees shall not use inappropriate and unethical means to influence the media and public.

4. Companies and their employees must be honest and accurate in what they communicate to the public. No one shall knowingly disseminate false information. No one shall make or instruct others to make insupportable claims. Information that is found to be misleading or inaccurate will be corrected in a timely manner.

5. Blogs, wikis, online communities, social networks and other new online platforms can be powerful communications tools. Any information disseminated on behalf of clients via media, online platforms or other means should be authentic in content, candid, transparent and accurate.

6. Companies and their employees will clearly disclose client relationships whenever distributing or posting information or opinions on behalf of a client.