Regulating PR. What Three African Nations are Doing

Doug Downs (00:08):

In 1962, Francesca Marasciulo was born in Italy with an unexpected and heartbreaking condition. Unlike other newborns, Francesca came into the world without arms, a condition that would make her early years in future life far more challenging than anyone could have anticipated. As a child, she faced numerous obstacles. Simple tasks like eating, dressing, or playing with toys required creativity and incredible perseverance. Yet Francesca grew up resilient, navigating a world not designed for someone with her unique circumstances. The same year Cindy Keefer was born in the United States with severe limb deformities. Neither Cindy nor Francesca's parents had any warning of what lay ahead when their mothers took a drug prescribed to them during pregnancy. For morning sickness, it was called thalidomide.

(01:05):

Thalidomide had been marketed in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a miracle cure for morning sickness in pregnant women. At that time, there were few regulations on drug testing and approval, which meant thalidomide hit the market without adequate research into its potential side effects on unborn children. That lack of regulation and oversight proved catastrophic. Within a few years, thousands of mothers who had taken thalidomide began giving birth to babies with severe birth defects. The drug interfered with fetal development leading to conditions such as limb malformation or absence. Public outrage following the thalidomide crisis was swift and fierce. The tragedy exposed the dire consequences of introducing medical treatments without thorough research and regulatory controls. In response, countries around the world implemented stringent drug testing protocols to ensure such a disaster could never happen again. Governments e established new standards for clinical trials, safety testing, and regulatory approval, recognizing that safeguarding public health required more than just trust in pharmaceutical companies.

(02:14):

Francesca and Cindy's stories highlight that in some professions, in some places, regulation is needed in public relations, we've been thinking about that for years. Some argue regulation would protect both the practice and the organizations we work for. Others would argue certification and accreditation programs are available for those who choose to take them. Programs like the APR or the CMP or SCMP program, which is now the only communications certification program in the world recognized by the International Standards Association. In Nigeria and Zambia, this is already the law. In Kenya they've taken steps to introduce a new regulation requiring mandatory certification for all PR practitioners today on Stories and Strategies, a look at the idea in Kenya. Does PR need a certification cure before any side effects are experienced?

(03:27):

My name is Doug Downs. My guest this week is Arik Karani. Hey, Arik.

Arik Karani (03:32):

Hey, Doug. How are you?

Doug Downs (03:32):

Good. How's your day going so far?

Arik Karani (03:34):

Super busy, but super

Doug Downs (03:37):

To a good start. Arik, you are the president of the Public Relations Society of Kenya and the current president of the African Public Relations Association, which is the umbrella for 24 national PR associations in Africa and over 40,000 practitioners. You have more than 20 years experience advising governments, civil society organizations, NGOs, and of course the private sector. You've worked with the World Bank, the government of Kenya and Child Fund International, just to name a few. So I believe it's called, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it's called the Public Relations and Communication Management Bill. I get that right?

Arik Karani (04:15):

Correct.

Doug Downs (04:16):

Okay. And it would require by law as in a regulation, all practicing public relations professionals to be certified through the Public Relations Society of Kenya as able to practice. And if they aren't certified, they can't practice pr. What is this bill and why is that so important?

Arik Karani (04:37):

I think the bill is very important from our perspective because it ensures that only qualified in individuals are the ones that are going to render the public relations service in the Republic of Kenya. Why do I say this? The primary aim of this bill is to establish standards and regulations that elevate public relations, professionalism, and integrity. Now, the bill here makes sure that only certified individuals can practice, and it also creates a legally recognizable self-regulatory institute. And this institute does maintain a register of all PR professionals in the country. Its charged with the mandate of enforcing high ethical standards, and it also offers training and certification frameworks to ensure that the practitioners are constantly evolving. And Doug, if you know, you of course know that PR is ever evolving. And what the bill looks at is this phenomenal of evolution of PR every single day. And then it mandates the practitioners to be able to undergo continuous professional developments to renew their licenses. This way they're able to practice while at the same time understand the new trends that are there. What I also like about the bill and the importance of it is that it establishes a disciplinary and ethics committee that handles complaints and imposes sanctions on practitioners who violate the court of conduct. So for me, I think the bill brings sanity and now helps us to uphold the integrity of the profession as a country.

Doug Downs (06:34):

Fascinating. So Kenya and Zambia, I would assume the two bills are very, they're the only two countries looking at doing this. I believe Zambia is in the same place, it's still a bill, not quite a law yet, is that right?

Arik Karani (06:49):

No, actually, just to mention here, that in Africa, it's not only Zambia that has this type of legal framework. What happened was Nigeria was the first country that established this framework in 1990 through a decree number, I think 16. And this decree gave rise to the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. And this institute now has the power since 1990 to be able to register members, regulate the practice, and ensure that it is ethical in Nigeria.

Doug Downs (07:25):

Interesting. As the president of the African Public Relations Association, paint me a picture of what PR looks like across, I guess across those 24 countries that you're the president of the umbrella group for. Give me a deeper picture of Kenya, because that's your specialty. What are the tools? What are the channels, what are the challenges? And then help me understand why does this have to be a regulation? Because everything you've described, we have certification, we have accreditation. There's a difference between the two. We covered that in last episode, to renew our skills, we have those, but there's no regulation saying, I have to go get it. That's the teeth here.

Arik Karani (08:06):

Yes, that's the teeth. And so what I will say, first of all, as a continent in Africa, the practice of PR is different. You have countries that are way advanced and have associations, and these associations can accredit people across the continent of Africa. So you have countries that are way advanced. Then you have other countries such as DRC and other countries such as Burundi that don't even have an association that can be able to ensure that the practice is standardized in those countries.

Doug Downs (08:44):

I get that. Why the teeth though? Why does it have to be mandatory and you spend time in the United States? Would that fly in the US or Canada or the UK or Australia?

Arik Karani (08:57):

I am not sure whether it would fly in the US and in Canada and in Australia. But I think one of the things that is important for us to be in this place is having clear consequences when it comes to practicing and maintain. What are the penalties? Yeah, the penalties, for example, is if you are practicing, if you look at our bill under clause number 39, it outlines the penalties for being, first of all, a non-registered practitioner. And some of these penalties means that you might need to be fined for practicing without a license. The organization that is employing someone who does not have a practicing certificate might be fined. So there are different penalties for different items under the bill. Other things also ensure that probably if you go wayward, you might be removed from the professional registered register that is maintained by their official body, or you might be able to be taken to the disciplinary committee. So it's all those ways of ensuring that you have the profession that is dealing in an ethical framework kind of thing.

Doug Downs (10:26):

So let me come back to why you think it wouldn't fly in the us, Canada, uk, Australia. Is it because we don't like to be told what to do? Just

Arik Karani (10:36):

Straight up? I think with the US and with most of the developed countries, the issue is sometimes everyone feels like they are an authority in the profession that they practice or in the field that they're in. So if you bring in a regulation that wants to standardize things, make it clearer, make it better, people will be going like, Hey, no, no, no, no, no. They're muzzling me. They want to take away my right

Doug Downs (11:14):

To

Arik Karani (11:14):

Speak. They want me to. So

Doug Downs (11:16):

Or there's a left wing slant to the regulation or there's a right wing slant to the regulation. I can't do that that way.

Arik Karani (11:23):

Exactly. It goes off like, oh, this is kind of like a left wing thing that is being thrown so that the right wing can be muzzled. So that's the thing. But if you look at it holistically in terms of the profession, and if you look at other professions like law, accounting in near doctors, doctors, why are they flourishing? Is because they have regulations, code of practice in legal frameworks. And sometimes even getting or disbarring a lawyer is a whole process. It just doesn't happen overnight. And it puts people to be able to know that you are being held at a certain standard. And so whenever you are working, you always have that at the back of your mind that I am held at a particular standard, and if I violate it, then I will probably have something to pay for it. And if they take away my livelihood, then I need to be able to know that I will not survive. So it's just about that. I think sometimes democracy comes with other obstacles.

Doug Downs (12:34):

How are you beginning to see some of the dividends, business leaders, governments understand that this bill, this law, this regulation is coming. Are there indications that PR practitioners are going to get a better seat at the table or as seat at the table? Are there indications they might see an increase in salary? Just any general dividends toward the profession?

Arik Karani (12:58):

That's a very, very, very nice point you've raised in terms of how are we standardizing the pay? So the bill also mandates a certain level of pay when it comes to people who are practicing. So you cannot underpay a PR practitioner just because you say you don't have budget. So you would probably pay an accountant way more, a lawyer way more, and then come and look at your budget budgeting and say, oh, this is a PR person, so we are probably going to pay them $200,

(13:29):

That one. Now we take you to task and say, no, this is the level of pay that the lowest that they can get at an entry level, this is what they can get at the mid level. This is what they can get at the managerial level and so forth. So you're setting the standard base pay that is reviewed after several times and after several years to make sure that it is market ready. And so that is one of the dividends that the practitioners will get in terms of protection. Also, an employer cannot wake up one day and decide that your services are useless and cannot be rendered, and they would want to maybe terminate you on the basis of you didn't do quality work. Because at that point you come and report and say, Hey, my employer just give me this letter and said that they're terminating me because my services were less than par. So at that particular point, we come in and we say, what exactly made you say that the services were less than par? Give us an example so that we can understand where this termination, whether this termination was lawful and that they did not perform with the standards that you want. So it protects also the practitioner as well.

Doug Downs (14:47):

Okay. I've got a slightly out of the box here. If you believe this is going to work for PR practitioners in Kenya, should we do the same thing with journalists? And I know it would never fly in the west. There's no chance. No chance.

Arik Karani (15:06):

Poor West, poor, poor West. So the funny part of this is that I always say that journalists and PR professionals both play a very interesting role in shaping opinion and managing information. But the nature of responsibilities of these two are very different. So I don't know what happens in other countries, but in Kenya, media regulation is in two parts. First, we have the regulation that is for the editorial policies of that respective media house, which is simple. It's all over the world where a media house has their own editorial policies and then journalists are veer to those. But second, which is critical in Kenya, is where our journalists are already mandated to be accredited by what we call the Media Council Act. The Media Council Act, yes, was enacted in 2013, if I'm not wrong. And it give rise to an organization called the Media Council of Kenya.

(16:17):

Now, the Media Council of Kenya is the one that is allowed to set the standards of how media will operate and individual journalists will operate within the country. It also ensures compliance with those standards that they have set. And everything is already in Article 34 of the Constitution in terms of how media should operate, how they should be regulated, and accreditation of all our journalists is done by the Media Council of Kenya. So already the regulation when it comes to journalism in the country is in place. We already are doing it through the Media Council of Kenya. So I always ask myself, is this something that can be replicated in other countries? Absolutely. Will it be replicated? I highly doubt it.

Doug Downs (17:11):

Right? It depends on the society that the audience, it's audience dependent. How will you listen to your audience, your PR practitioners in Kenya to make sure this is still working for them?

Arik Karani (17:24):

One of the most amazing things that we are doing as Kenya is having these conversations with all practitioners monthly through a town hall. So every first Thursday of the month, we hold a town hall where all practitioners within the country can log on. It's online is one and a half hours where we discuss issues that are pertaining to Kenya and how do we improve, what are the challenges? How do we make things better? But what I'm now seeing that is happening across Africa, which is exciting for me, is that African practitioners are now coming together. Just last month in September, we had the East Africa PR week, and all East African practitioners converged in ausa, Tanzania. And we were discussing out of all the seven countries that practicing in East Africa pr, we were discussing what are the challenges that are common for all of us?

(18:22):

What are some of the things that we need to do? And this led to the formation of the East Africa PR Association, an association that is just looking at how do we set standards across this region and how do we move these standards to the next level? And what gave birth to this was also a group that was formed that has now 9,000 East African PR practitioners in one group, and they discuss monthly, how do we make things better? What are we going to do in the next level? How do we work with the different organizations such as the East Africa Commission to be able to rebrand and tell the East African story? So I see this as an evolving thing, and Africa is now setting the standards in terms of regulation and how we are going to paint ourselves to the wild.

Doug Downs (19:15):

Fascinating to hear how it's working in Kenya, but throughout Africa. I appreciate this, Arik.

Arik Karani (19:20):

Yeah, you're welcome.

Doug Downs (19:22):

Hey, in our previous episode, our guest, SIA Papa Giorgio of the Center for Strategic Communication Excellence, she left a question for you.

Sia Papageorgiou (19:30):

Oh, I love how you do this. So my question to your next guest is, if you had an entire day to yourself with no obligations, how

Doug Downs (19:39):

Would you, well, Ferris Bueller's day off kind of deal.

Sia Papageorgiou (19:41):

Yes, yes. Anything you want? No obligations. How would you spend your day?

Doug Downs (19:45):

Would I have to live with my current budget? Would I have my current wallet? Or is money? No, object.

Sia Papageorgiou (19:51):

Look, it's your dream. You can do whatever you like. Fair enough.

Arik Karani (19:54):

So my life is always on the move. I'm always on the run. I am always doing something. And if I had a day off, if I had a day off, which I rarely get, my ideal day would be I would switch off all my gadgets, there'll be off. And then I would binge watch Netflix the entire day on the couch, eat pizza and just chicken on everything the entire day. I would be kitchen, sitting room, living room, kitchen, like all that's what I would do.

Doug Downs (20:33):

Oh, so good. Just let your brain slowly turn to mush. I like that.

Arik Karani (20:39):

Exactly. And with the gadgets, of course, everybody's normally looking for me and some fire is normally burning somewhere.

Doug Downs (20:47):

And you know what? That gadget's off that even for a half day. That's so important. That is something every one of us should do.

Arik Karani (20:54):

Exactly. Yeah. I'm starting to land that.

Doug Downs (20:58):

Yeah, your turn. What question would you like to leave behind for our next guest?

Arik Karani (21:03):

For our next guest? I really, really, really, really have been thinking about this. I think it's one of the things you start thinking when you get to a certain age and my age, which I'm not going to say, and I know Doug, you want me to say no, I will not tell you, and I will not say what age I am. But for my next guest, what's your biggest fear? And please don't tell me the darkness, cockroaches and stuff like that. No. As you grow older, what is your fear of life? I would love to hear, know that.

Doug Downs (21:41):

Oh, that is good. You've got my mind just spinning right now.

Arik Karani (21:45):

I would tell you mine. But

Doug Downs (21:47):

Yeah, what is it?

Arik Karani (21:50):

I think my biggest fear is, or thing that I'm always thinking about is in 50 years I probably will not be in existence. You probably will not be in existence. So I always wonder, how will the world be without me in

Doug Downs (22:08):

It

Arik Karani (22:09):

After we are all gone and we are just there? And where are we going? Is it silence? Is it darkness? Is there a life over there? Is what is going to go on on that side?

Doug Downs (22:20):

A big question. Yeah.

Arik Karani (22:22):

And then what is, just imagine the life without you.

Doug Downs (22:25):

Yeah. Mine would be very similar. Mine would be I want to go out in those final days, moments on the note that I want to go out. So I don't want it to be an accident. I don't want it to be a catastrophe. I don't want there to be a family rift. Right. You know what it's saying. Me

Arik Karani (22:44):

Too. Me too. I want a quiet one. Peaceful like you sleep and just wake up in the other side.

Doug Downs (22:50):

Right, right.

Arik Karani (22:52):

Yeah.

Doug Downs (22:52):

Transfer to whatever's next.

Arik Karani (22:54):

Let's cross our fingers. It happens both for both of us.

Doug Downs (22:57):

And let's do a coffee or a beer on the other side together. Yes. Thanks for this, Arik. Thank you. If you'd like to send a message to my guest, Arik ti, we've got some contact information in the show notes, Stories and Strategies as a co-production of JGR Communications and Stories and Strategies podcast. If you like this episode, hey, please do leave a rating, possibly a review. Check out our YouTube channel. Segments from the podcast are available in video. Always thank you to Gold Star Producer Emily Page. And lastly, do us a favour forward this episode to one friend. Thanks for listening.