The morality of public relations in war

The propaganda films through the great wars of the 20th century played an important role in retaining the morale of the public. As we live through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is tempting to believe that such government influence on the media no longer occurs. This, of course, is not the case, it’s just that the governments' influence on the media is perhaps more subtle and more complex. For those of you that are not regular readers of the Khaleej Times  , in a recent article they outline how, in response to losing the PR war around the Georgian conflict last year, the likes of Ketchum and Portland now play an important role in presenting the policies of the Russian government to the media. Needless to say the war in Georgia is not the only example of PR playing a part in the media battles of a recent conflict. The Iraqi government has long had links to western PR agencies and the UK and US governments employ a small army of PROs to mould the media’s coverage of the Afghanistan and Iraqi conflicts. On the basis that all is fair in love and war, does this really matter? PR Consultancies are commercial organisations ultimately responsible to maximise shareholders profits. It seems unlikely that the shareholders of Chime are overly concerned that Bell Pottinger has worked with the Iraqi government to promote democracy. That said, where does the line of acceptable behaviour stand? PR agencies have to (and in most cases I’m sure do) take an ethical decision based upon their moral judgement. Do the clients they represent have acceptable moral standards? Do they treat their people with respect? All interesting questions and the reality is that these situations are rarely black and white. For example, you can bet that western PR agencies are currently helping President Karzai in Afghanistan and what a moral minefield that situation is. The PR of war is often hugely profitable but for long term gain PR agencies need to show sound ethical judgement in who they agree to work alongside. That said, history is normally written by the side which won the war, so perhaps PR agencies just need to make sure they work with the winning side.