I was not aware that the Public Relations Society of America added the following language to its Code of Ethics until Adam Denison pointed it out to me:

Emphasis on enforcement of the Code has been eliminated…Ethical practice is the most important obligation of a PRSA member.

The general reaction to efforts aimed at establishing a code of ethics in the blogosphere has been that those who are not inclined to behave ethically won’t abide by such a code because there are no consequences. It is best left to the organizations to which these people belong to enforce their own codes. BUt if the organizations that supposedly hold members to ethical standards are not willing to take action to enforce those standards, then they have absolutely no meaning.

Right now, the practice of public relations is under assault. Hardly a week goes by without somebody taking aim at PR, usually over actions taken that range from naieve to clueless to blatantly unethical. If ever there was a time the profession needed to get serious about policing itself, it’s now. Enforcement of an ethics code can show everybody outside of PR that we are serious about the way we practice our craft. It can make it clear that those who behave contrary to the code are a minority, even if they do get the lion’s share of attention from media and bloggers.

Yet PRSA seems to have tucked its tail between its legs and left it to each member to choose whether to abide by the association’s code. That’s discouraging.