New York, July 1, 2009 - PRSA has addressed a longstanding ethical issue in the relationship between PR professionals and journalists, updating its Member Code of Ethics with a provision stating that ethical practitioners must encourage full disclosure if any exchange of value with a journalist resulted in editorial coverage.

The update to the Code of Ethics reinforces one of its basic tenets: communications transparency. The code now specifies that public relations practitioners must disclose any exchange of value with journalists that is intended to garner or influence editorial coverage.

"Pay for play occurs when there's intent to hide an exchange of value between a public relations professional and a journalist," said Robert Frause, APR, Fellow PRSA, who chairs the Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS), the group within PRSA responsible for maintaining, updating and educating members of the Society about the PRSA Code of Ethics. "It occurs when professionals make undisclosed payments to journalists or media companies to publish or broadcast a client's story, or when professionals allow placement of stories that appear to be earned media where compensation was provided in exchange for publication or broadcast."

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