General Pinochet hired Patrick Robertson last week to help manage
media coverage
Amanda Barnes Amnesty International
’Yes. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. So long as the
law is respected, even the most odious people must be allowed to use
whatever means they choose to communicate their views. However, it is
important that the PR industry is ethical and does not allow itself to
be used to misrepresent reality or obscure what the public have a right
to know.’
Ellen Taverner
Credit Suisse
’Of course everyone should have access to professional advice. However,
in practice I would never be prepared to put a client before my
conscience.
There must be an ethical dimension to the kind of work we do. And there
are circumstances in which an individual has forfeited the right to my
counsel, however much money they have to pay.’
Ardi Kolah
Maverick
’As an established principle of jurisprudence, everyone is entitled to a
fair trial, including General Pinochet, as he discovered from his
hospital bed. And so it would be wholly inconsistent to deny access to
PR representation in a modern democracy. But to establish this as a
’right’ in the same sense as the European Convention of Human Rights
would be meaningless and unworkable.’
Stephen Lock
Ludgate
’PR people are far too precious and picky about their own ethical
universe and who they will work with. We should be more like
lawyers.
Professional PR people (worthy of the term) should not shrink from
representing the unpopular or unpleasant. Good rebuttal is just as much
a person’s right in the court of public opinion as in a court of law. We
gave Nazis lawyers to defend themselves at Nuremberg, we should allow
General Pinochet his PR today.’
Charles Stewart-Smith
Luther Pendragon
’The strength of our democracy should allow anyone representation.
If we do not, we become as oppressive as the regimes we despise. But to
represent well, it is better to have some sympathy for the client. Those
sympathetic to Pinochet may not be best placed to understand the
sophistications of a free press and an annoyingly independent
judiciary.’
