Ethics And Law In Corporate Communication

The laws that touch on corporate communications are, for the most part, fairly well known to those in business. There are the obvious ones such as statutes against defaming or libeling others or committing fraud by making false statements. There are also less obvious ones such as prohibitions against making untrue or misleading statements about securities and laws that regulate advertising practices.

In addition to these legal standards, there are also standards of ethical conduct that apply to corporate communications. These are often not as clearly defined as legal standards and vary from company to company. As a result, you should be aware of the ethical guidelines that your company has established for its operations and communications with the public.

The ethical standards that apply to public communication may be contained in a code of ethics adopted by your company or in mission statements, codes of conduct, policies and procedures manuals and other documents your company has developed.

Ethics And Law In Corporate Communication

Ethical and legal boundaries can be confusing for people in the corporate communications field. This confusion can sometimes lead to ethical and legal violations. For example, journalists who work for the same company that owns their news outlet may find themselves unclear about whether they should adhere to a journalist's code of ethics or an employee's code of conduct. This can particularly be true when it comes to conflicts of interest.

Many corporations have codes of ethics that are specific to their industry. For example, medical professionals have a code of ethics that is specific to the medical industry. Lawyers have a code of ethics specific to the legal profession. Journalists have a code of ethics that is specific to journalism. Journalists are expected to adhere to this code even if they are employed by companies that own media outlets.

Corporations also have codes of conduct that employees must follow. These codes cover such things as not stealing from the company, following the chain of command and not breaking any laws while on the job.

Businesses also follow laws, which are often industry-specific and generally enforced by some type of government agency or regulatory body. For instance, there are laws about how much money people can give to political candidates and what information must be included on food labels.

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