How should PROs handle media leaks?

If you want to hush something up, the recent footballer and X-Factor contestant saga, teaches a few lessons about why taking out a super injunction is a bad idea.

The footballer may have been poorly advised, but there are other examples of PR firms highlighting their clients misdemeanours, rather than keeping them under wraps. If you are in possession of sensitive information, Rassami Hok Ljungberg, director of PR agency Rassami, offers this advice for defusing it: “Don’t talk about it nor hint to it, while making sure you have a correct yet deflecting response for anybody asking about it. But, the golden rule is: don't lie!”

Although you will be lucky if you do manage to keep it secret. Even if the quietest whisper gets out, the power of social media means that soon people will be shouting about it. Freelance PR consultant Claire Thompson comments: “PR is now pervasive. People – including those within companies and organisations – need to recognise that absolutely everything they do has a PR implication.“

Thompson points out that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not a “fluffy, charitable exercise”, but is crucial, adding: “If you're doing something in any way noxious, stop it or seek to mitigate it."

If there are issues that make your client’s business look bad, Thompson advises: “The only way to come out with any dignity is to come clean and apologise. Unless Trafigura and Carter Ruck wanted to be known for cheap dumping of illicit substances and taking on the media respectively, their super injunctions were ill advised. And Burson Marsteller should have been advising Facebook better. PROs need to understand the environment in which we all now work in order to advise clients effectively."

Cover ups don’t work. Maxine Ambrose, partner at agency Ambrose Communications, says: “The truth will always out, so it’s better to put your energy into a formal crisis PR plan. True, there may be a high pain point in the short term, but over time, brands gain more respect that way. Look at the way that Richard Branson was honest about Virgin Trains needing to improve in the early days. Honesty can take the wind out of the sails of a potential scandal. The public will forgive a mistake, it won’t forgive a cover up.”

Julia Ruane, director at agency ChiCho Marketing, agrees that it is foolish to try and hide bad news: “My view is that it is impossible to keep a client’s secrets. People will always talk. The problem is that now their ‘talk’ can go global.“ But Ruane does not think people using social media can continue being able to say whatever they like. She adds: “Social media is going to come under close scrutiny over the next 12 months, with people being opened up to being sued for libel. This will create a big problem for those of us working in PR, as quite often we’re the ghost writers for our clients.”

How to handle unwanted leaks

Suggested by Gay Collins, executive chairman of PR firm MHP Communications:

• Anticipate that sensitive information will leak, and plan and prepare for that.
• If it’s highly sensitive, brief lawyers as well as PROs at an early stage.
• Agree a holding statement in case of a leak – this should be short and should not add to the story, but should not be simply “no comment”.
• Stick to it.
• Preferably use a third party to deliver the holding statement, so casual questions can’t be used to embellish the story.
• Remind switchboard, and other colleagues, of procedure for media calls.
• Journalists will often call several contacts within one organisation, so ensure you make likely people aware if a leak has occurred.
• Monitor social media sites on a very regular basis.