News Release: Legally Binding?

8/14/2010

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Today, an international celebrity who was scheduled to perform at a local event did not show-up.  In a bid to "manage the crisis", the PR Team was called in to craft a News Release.

As with all Releases concerning multiple parties, the final draft was a collaborative process with the celebrity's management company proposing that the celebrity's absence be explained as "unavoidably delayed".  Realising that the celebrity had likely broken a legal agreement, the PR Team decided to consult the company's lawyers on the suitability of this statement.  Thankfully this was done and, on the advise of the lawyers, the word "unavoidably" was removed.  This was to prevent any potential wiggle-room for the celebrity to avoid paying the company compensation.

While the word "unavoidably" sounds like good PR Speak, it was designed to protect the interest of the celebrity.  As I explained in an earlier blog about the working relationship between reporters and PR Professionals, as PR Professionals we must also remember who is our pay-master.  This is no different even when we are dealing with other PR Professionals from other companies.
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Newspaper Photographer Held for Taking Flood Photos (Day 6)

7/23/2010

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Singapore. (23 July 2010. 1950 hrs).  It is now Day 6 and media and stakeholder interest in the incident has faded for now.  It is therefore timely for us to pause and reflect on the key lessons that we can learn from this incident:

a.     The Importance of Open, Timely, Broadly Communicated and Internet Presence.  In my opinion, this incident could have been contained and isolated if the MHA PR Dept had adopted a Crisis Communication plan that had the above 4 characteristics.  Their failure to be open and provide timely updates, led to speculations of police cover-up, while their failure (or decision) not to communicate the facts using their MHA website (internet presence) further stoked stakeholder anger over the incident.

b.     Need to do a Stakeholder Analysis.  The inability of the press statement and comment by the Minister for the Environment to stem the anger, showed that the MHA PR Dept had misunderstood stakeholders' concerns.  A thorough Stakeholder Analysis would have revealed that the main issue was one of "abuse of authority".  A simple statement of fact that there are "measures in place to prevent an abuse of authority" would have, in my opinion, stopped the crisis from building up.  While I do not have empirical evidence, I feel that the incident would have affected the morale of the police force.  A proper internal communication plan to internal stakeholders would therefore have been essential to ensure that the police continue to carry out their duties professionally.

c.     Framing the Incident.  The manner in which the incident spiralled out of control shows the importance of using the initial press statement to frame the crisis.  Without a proper "frame" the incident went in many tangents including political ones.
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