Public Relations has a trust problem; And some of it is self-inflicted
Taazima Kala-Essack | Wednesday June 3, 2026 13:12
My heart sank a little. Not because this is about politics, nor because people are not entitled to support whoever they choose. Rather, because if there is one thing I would never want associated with what I do as a communications professional, it is the idea that PR exists to distort truth, spin recklessly or simply positivity-wash over consequence.
And yet, perhaps that reaction says something uncomfortable about our industry.
For years, public relations professionals have fought hard to move beyond the “spin doctor” stereotype. We have positioned PR as strategic counsel, reputation stewardship and ethical communication. We have argued, rightly, that good public relations is not manipulation; it is trust-building.
The challenge, however, is that trust is fragile.
One of the great ironies of public relations is that ours is an industry built almost entirely on intangible things; trust, credibility, reputation and belief. None of them can be touched. All of them can be destroyed.
A balance sheet can recover from losses. Infrastructure can be rebuilt. Products can be redesigned. But once trust fractures, recovery is painfully slow, expensive and, sometimes, impossible. As the song goes, “nothing ever lasts forever.”
Which is why PR professionals should arguably hold ourselves to a higher ethical standard than most industries demand. When communicators operate carelessly, dishonestly or without integrity, the damage extends far beyond a bad campaign or unhappy client; it weakens confidence in communication itself.
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that seven in ten people globally now believe leaders and journalists deliberately mislead them through exaggeration or outright falsehoods. At the same time, the ICCO World PR Report 2025/26 notes that strategic consulting and corporate reputation are now the biggest growth areas in global PR, while misinformation and ethical risk remain among the defining challenges facing the profession.
That contradiction should concern us. Because if PR increasingly wants a seat at the leadership table, then ethics cannot remain a soft afterthought. Indeed, the same ICCO report found that 89% of firms globally are already integrating AI into daily workflows; making human judgment, ethics and cultural intelligence even more valuable, not less.
Technology has amplified some of this tension. AI tools have democratised content creation, but access to a tool does not create professional judgment. A generated caption is not strategic counsel. Public relations, at its best, has never simply been about producing content; it has been about stewardship. And stewardship requires accountability.
Mistakes happen in fast-moving, high-pressure environments. But there is a meaningful difference between error and evasion. It is one thing to be careless, lazy or reckless. It is another thing entirely to knowingly conceal poor judgment, deflect accountability or quietly protect bad practice through silence.
To be fair, many of the frameworks already exist; ethical codes, professional standards, mentorship structures, accreditation pathways and industry bodies. The question is whether we use them seriously enough and whether we are willing to hold one another accountable when those standards are breached.
This is not a challenge unique to Botswana. In fact, many markets are wrestling with similar tensions around misinformation, declining trust and the democratisation of communication tools. But Botswana is a smaller, ambitious and rapidly growing market; which means the stakes are arguably even higher.
Whether it is your agency, your communications lead or someone inside your organisation, the premise is simple; anyone operating without integrity risks weakening trust in the entire profession.
Because perhaps the real question facing PR today is not whether we are good at shaping perception. It is whether, when nobody is watching, we are still brave enough to tell the truth, challenge bad practice and hold the line on integrity anyway.
And, indeed, whether we are brave enough to hold one another accountable when our actions place the reputation of the entire profession at risk; not performatively, not vindictively, but professionally.
Because if communicators are unwilling to confront unethical conduct within our own ranks, then we cannot credibly ask the public to trust us with the reputations of others. If the answer to that becomes “no”, then the greatest reputational crisis our industry will ever face will not belong to any client.
It will belong to us.
*Taazima Kala, General Manager & Chief Consultant, Hotwire; Chair, CIPR International. Taazima is a Chartered PR Practitioner and passionate communications professional who champions PR as a force for good, with a focus on reputation management, strategic communications and storytelling that empowers and connects people with what matters most to them