Caritas Communications, a leading reputation solution, and strategic communications company, in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, (NIPR) has held the maiden edition of the Caritas Reputation Leadership Roundtable Summit in Lagos.

The summit, which had the theme, ‘Ethics, Reputation & Technology in a VUCA Economy,’’ attracted top executives, public relations experts, media practitioners, communications advisors in corporations and thought leaders from various sectors of the economy and was chaired by

Femi Adesina, senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity.
Adesina emphasised that ethics was vital to the public relations and media space in general, adding that abiding by the ethos of journalism and the PR guidelines, will save practitioners from embarrassing situations, especially litigations and reputation damage caused by the adverse effect fake news.

The keynote address was delivered by Emeka Oparah, Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel, who said that practitioners have to get back to the basics, and do what they need to do to improve journalism and public relations practice.

The Key Note address was followed by a robust panel discussion that explored new themes in reputation management, strategic communications in crisis situations, and the influence of modern technology on reputation management.

Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, President African Public Relations Association (APRA); Tunji Abioye, Chief Executive Officer, Fuel Communications, and Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan of Access Bank Plc. sat on the panel session. They unanimously agreed that reputation management practitioners must engage in continuous education as this was the only way to keep up with best practice.

The panel sector which was moderated by John Ehiguese, president PRCAN and CEO, Mediacraft believed that issues around training and capacity building; value for ethics in the profession and the need for increased awareness on the dangers of fake news, were vital to the growth and development of the public relations practice.