There were a couple of interesting PR related articles in the national press over the weekend (I'm still catching up on Saturday and Sunday's papers now). The first in The Guardian was 'PR with integrity - the acceptable face of spin' a rather patronising look at ethical PR. It appears to simply describe what lots of PR companies and PR people have already been doing for many years.

Since I started NetworxPR in 1998 we have always been an ethical PR company, it's just that we've never chosen to 'spin' it that way. We've always had a very clear understanding of what clients we will work for and those that are totally unacceptable (e.g. tobacco, arms industry etc). In fact I remember turning down a very lucrative contract to handle media relations for a company being sued by its employees for industrial injury. They were impressed by the work I had done on behalf of solicitors representing the victims of asbestos contamination and vibration white finger. I am happy to work for the victims but not for the perpatrator, no matter how much money they offered.

The second article was 'Flattery will get you everywhere' in The Observer, which was a very brief history of financial PR. The author, John Coyle, is one of the founding fathers of financial PR in the UK and was a financial journalist before turning his hand to running a financial PR firm.

Coyle believes that the PR industry needs "more recruits from the professions, with appropriate qualifications" and that "the vast number of media studies degree courses are not the answer". I'm not entirely sure what he's getting at here. I'll agree that a media studies graduate is no better, in fact possibly less, suited to a PR career than any other graduate. However, a graduate of a PR degree course is a different kettle of fish entirely. In my belief the key phrase is "with appropriate qualifications". Transferable skills and experience from other professions are all very well, but they need to be underpinned with proper PR education, training and qualifications from an IPR approved course.

In fact training and qualifications is the thread that links the two articles. PRs with proper training and qualifications are far more likely to be ethical PRs than those who have just drifted in.