Leading & Celebrating our Profession - 25 years of Growth & Resilience

Prof Justin Green, President & CEO, Global Alliance - Annual Report 2024

As we enter our 25th year (marked as the ‘silver jubilee’ in some cultures), it is my great honour to present the 2024 annual report of your Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. With your steadfast support and active involvement, 2024 was another year of growth for our Alliance in terms of our membership, our service offering, and the reach and impact achieved through our global advocacy.

As I reflect on another year of accomplishment with your support, I am also reminded that it is now almost six years since I had the tremendous privilege of being elected Global Alliance President in 2019. You will recall that a global pandemic came into all of our lives soon after that. This meant my early months and years as President coincided with a major public health emergency that challenged all of us to think differently about how we lived and worked.

Global Alliance evolved our member offering to better reflect the new realities of global business and that journey continues.

Shaping the Future of Communication: A Dialogue Ahead of the European Summit in Venice

AI, ethics, and the future of communication: a dialogue ahead of the Global Alliance’s European Summit and AI Symposium, set to take place in Venice this May.

This interview opens the communication campaign leading up to the European Communication Summit and the AI Symposium taking place in Venice on 16 May 2025.

Bonnie Caver, SCMP, IABC Fellow, - former chair of the International Association of Business Communicators, board member of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management and co-facilitator of the session that will shape the Venice Pledge, a global commitment to ethical and responsible AI in communication — is interviewed by Lorenzo Canu, a Master’s student at the University of Amsterdam, currently writing a thesis on the EU’s Trusted Flaggers mechanism and General Coordinator of FERPILab.

Time to Take Leadership: Trust and Transparency in the Era of the Green Regulation

by Petteri Lillberg

Five years ago, I co-authored a pioneering book on the role of brand and communications professionals in addressing the climate crisis. While the book was reflective and critical, its tone was optimistic and encouraging. It made the case that private enterprise and the business community, rather than governments or nation-states, were the most effective actors in tackling climate challenges.

Fast forward five years, and two things are clear. We have yet to solve the climate crisis, and instead of free markets leading the charge, the European Union is placing increasing faith in regulation. While markets outside Europe may operate under more relaxed regulatory environments, my recent discussions with partners, clients, and experts in the U.S., Latin America, and China confirm that the EU Green Claims Directive is redefining the rules of engagement. As a top business school professor I talked to in New York poignantly put it, the directive has "the potential to become a world law for all and any business wishing to expand internationally."

Security communication and ethics

by Tommi Lehtonen

Numerous crises around the world, including the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the war in Ukraine, the climate change, and the Covid pandemic, have intensified people’s feelings of insecurity and uncertainty, attracting substantial worldwide attention. Wars, viruses, and natural disasters have produced an atmosphere of insecurity, posing challenges for public authorities in particular. The news media and social media have a significant impact on citizens’ perceptions of safety. Many security and resilience challenges require effective organizational communication. The rising demand for security makes the ethics of security communication an urgent concern.

International research shows that individuals and communities cherish and aspire to security (Pew Research Center 2019, Pinker 2018). Security is a value, or a feature that is seen advantageous and desirable. Citizens are interested in security issues, therefore communication about and for security has importance. Despite this, not everyone is concerned about safety, and many people love adventure and risk-taking in proper situations. People can also erode security by their own activities, even on a global scale, as seen by the climate crisis and environmental destruction. Therefore, simply valuing security does not guarantee its protection. At the same time, we can and should evaluate all human activity, including security efforts and communication, from an ethical standpoint.