Lobbying

Lobbying (also lobby) is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the
government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by
various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or
government officials, or advocacy groups (interest groups). Lobbyists may be among a
legislator's constituents, meaning a voter or bloc of voters within his or her electoral district, or
not; they may engage in lobbying as a business, or not. Professional lobbyists are people whose
business is trying to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest who hires them.
Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part
of their normal job (for instance, a CEO meeting with a representative about a project important
to his/her company, or an activist meeting with his/her legislator in an unpaid capacity).
Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.

The ethics and morality of lobbying are dual-edged. Lobbying is often spoken of with contempt,
when the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting the law
(twisting it away from fairness) in order to serve their own conflict of interest. But another side
of lobbying is making sure that others' interests are duly defended against others' corruption, or
even simply making sure that minority interests are fairly defended against mere tyranny of the
majority. For example, a medical association, or a trade association of health insurance
companies, may lobby a legislature in order to counteract the influence of tobacco companies, in
which case the lobbying would be viewed by most people as justified (duly defending against
others' corruption). The difficulty in drawing objective lines between which lobbyists are "good
lobbyists" and which ones are "bad ones" is compounded by the cleverness with which lobbyists
or their clients can speciously argue that their own lobbying is of the "good" kind. At heart, the
effort to influence legislation is a power struggle. As in other forms of power struggle, such as
war or law enforcement, motives range from predation to self-defense to fighting for justice, and
the dividing line between predation and justice is subject to rationalization.

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Functions
The functions of PR can be described as follows:

a) Press Relations: One objective of the PR manager is to ensure that the company gets written about favourably
in the press. For this, relations with media correspondents have to be maintained. They have to be provided with
information and handouts.

b) Communications: Customers, suppliers, employees, dealers and others in contact with the company must
know what it is doing or plans to do in the future. Misunderstandings may otherwise arise which may affect the
business in the long run.

c) Lobbying: Effective PR can influence public policy. An important function of the PR professional will be to
maintain close relations and convince influential people in various walks of life.
d) Counselling: Doubts have to be removed from the minds of people through meetings and counselling, which
will help keep a direct contact and not let doubts remain which may have an adverse impact on the company.

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What does lobbying mean in public relations?

Activties by which group pressures are brought to bear on legislatures, the legislative process,
and all aspects of the public-policy-making process.
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Is Lobbying Public Relations?
Is Lobbying Public Relations?

Dr. CV Narasimah Reddi

Corporate Lobbyist, Nira Radia who owns companies such as ‘Ne U Com Consultancy’, which
advises Reliance Industries and ‘Vaishnavi Corporate Communications’ which deals with the
Tata Group, was quizzed recently both by the Enforcement Directorate, CBI for her alleged role
in 2G Spectrum and License allocation scam. Ms. Radia’s questioning mainly revolved around
her role as lobbyist for her high profile clients with interests in telecommunications and also her
role in bringing foreign investment into telecom firms in India. There has been an intensive and
interesting debate on this issue over e-discussion groups and also media. Some of the
observations of these groups are as follows:

Media reports revealed the alleged role played by Nira Radia, a Lobbyist and a PR professional in this
mega scam

“Times Now” channel was highly critical of PR profession itself. Few such professionals have brought shame to the
entire profession

How do you rescue reputation of PR firm from the telecom scandal?

The media is exposing corruption in PR profession.

When the PR profession itself is being debated in media in this scam why none of the CEOs of the big PR firms has
come out openly condemning the unethical practices of the profession?

K. Srinivasan of PR Point group has appealed to Media and PR professional bodies to jointly or individually give an
open statement upholding ethics and values in communication profession.

Y. Babji of GFPR group has gone ahead and said “Who is Nira Radia? She is a lobbyist and not a PR practitioner
and that Nira Radia has generated so much Radia-tion in the PR profession and created too much of confusion.

If we make an analysis of the companies, Nira Radia owns and the roles played she may be described as “Three-in-One”. She
seems to have played the role of a consultant to Reliance Industries, a lobbyist in Telecom Scam and a Public Relations
Consultant to Tatas. The confusion arises because she is ‘three-in-one’. Each role has to be considered independently and that
these functions should not be mixed and integrated into one as to blame the Public Relations profession. Integration perhaps is
based on imagination but not in reality. Unfortunately, lobbying is being treated as public relations both in media and e-
discussion groups and the practice of public relations is being defamed as part of telecom scam.

Public Relations Voice, as the journal of PR professionals makes an attempt here to distinguish between public relations and
lobbying as two distinct disciplines, from the point of view of academics as well as professional practice. These two areas adopt
different approaches in strategy, objectives, target audience, media choice, message formulation, presentation and also in cost.

Definitions

What is Public Relations?

‘Public relations is the management of a two way communication process between an organization and its publics to promote the
corporate mission, services, products, reputation and gain public understanding’. Basically, it is the relationship management
function based on organization’s performance and service to the stakeholders. It adopts a multi-media approach to reach varied
segmented publics from employees to general community. The end result of public relations is to create and sustain goodwill and
mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.

What is Lobbying?

The origin of lobby is from the Latin word “Lobia” which means “Covered walk”, first used in the sense of Monastic Cloister.
From the Latin word, there emerged lobbying as one of the techniques of management to influence legislative process. In the
British Parliament, a large hall that is open to the public and used for the people to meet and talk to Members of Parliament is
called lobby, where lobbying is done.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines Lobbying as “to try to influence a politician or the government”. For
example, farmers in U.S will lobby the Congress for higher subsidies. Lobbying is “a process in which lobbyist or pressure
groups seek to influence those in power”. Lobbying as such is recognized as a specific activity or specialism in the
communication field.

Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a lobbyist as “a person who tries to influence the voting on legislation or the decisions
of government administrators”. The term lobbyist originally was used to describe the men who sought favors from President
Abraham Lincoln who conducted affairs of State in the lobby of the Willard Hotel, near the White House.

From these definitions, we may infer that lobbying may be a specialized sub-set of public affairs but it is not the whole story in
terms of public affairs function and cannot and should not be used as a synonym with public affairs or public relations.

One Directory of Washington Lobbyists lists about 30,000 individuals and organizations. The interests represented by them
virtually include the entire spectrum of U.S. business, educational, religious, local, national and international pursuits. The
American Association of Retired Persons is an example of a lobbyist to quote “lobbyists and lobbies are regulated in U.S. by the
Lobbying Disclosure Act”. One key provision of this Act stipulates that lobbyists should register with the Congress and disclose
their clients, the issue areas in which lobbying is being done, and roughly how much is being paid for it. Lobbyists paid lavish
lunches and drawn-out dinners are forbidden under the Act. There are also rules for gifts and travel. Senators and their aides and
other Senate Officers are barred from accepting gifts worth more than $50 and from accepting privately paid travel to recreational
events. Violators faced civil fines of up to $ 50,000 under the law.

Code of Ethics

The discussion groups also raised a point about ethics in Public Relations. The Global Alliance for Public Relations and
Communication Management is an apex body of various national public relations associations of the world which has been
established to promote greater professional excellence in the discipline. It has adopted a Global Protocol on ethics in public
relations which is acknowledged worldwide for practice. Clauses relating to ethics as follows:

‘We pledge’ to conduct ourselves professionally with integrity, truth, accuracy, fairness and responsibility to our clients, our
client publics and to an informed society Code of Practice. We believe it is the duty of every association and every member
within that association that is part to the code of professional standards to

Keep informed and educated about practices in the profession that ensure ethical conduct.
Counsel its individual members in proper ethical decision making generally and on a case specific basis.

Require that individual members observe the ethical recommendation and behavioral requirements of the
code.

PRSI Code of Ethics

The PRSI has adopted code of Athens of the International PR Association as its code of
professional ethics on April 21, 1968 at its first All India PR Conference held in New Delhi. It
says ‘members shall refrain from subordinating truth to other requirements. Taking part in any
venture or undertaking which is unethical or dishonest or capable of impairing human dignity
and integrity’. Likewise all PR professional bodies in the world have adopted code of ethics in
PR.

But it is a million dollar question whether the code of ethics in PR is being implemented in letter
and spirit? Professional bodies must implement the code by creating the required awareness
among managements and individual members as not to involve in any scams like the Satyam
Computers Scam in which the Corporate Communications was a party to the disinformation
campaign of mismanagement of finances.

In conclusion, the point for consideration is whether Nira Radia is a lobbyist or public relations
practitioner in the telecom scam? She may have used her Corpcom or PR tag but her
actions, her methods, her approach, her target audience, her strategy, the cost involved,
her modus operandi and her intentions bear an eloquent proof to the fact that through
unfair methods she has influenced and connected the authorities in power. There was no
element of public relations in this issue. Therefore, public relations cannot be blamed as if it
indulged in unethical practice. However, lobbying in India is yet growing as is in the case of
U.S. There is no law in our country either to regulate lobbying or public relations. Professional
Associations such the Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry to name a few are the pressure groups that influence the decision
making process of Government in the areas of taxes, imports or exports. They also give advice to
the Government on policy making to the advantage of their members. Similarly, certain
individuals like Nira Radia through their consultancies have taken up the task of lobbying in
India. In the wake of economic liberalization, privatization and globalization India offers ample
opportunities for lobbying as a specialist area of public affairs when Government of India may
enact a law to regulate the lobbyists.

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Lobbying, PR part of democratic set-up:
Khurshid
PTI Dec 14, 2010, 05.47pm IST
Tags:

 Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing debate, corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid said that
lobbying and public relations are part of the democratic set-up but cautioned against their use to
subvert corporate governance.

"When you talk of lobbying, PR, these are areas that are part of the democratic system. Their
illegitimate use, their use to subvert corporate governance is something that we should certainly
look at," Khurshid said on the sidelines of the 'India Corporate Week' event here.

The minister's comments come in the backdrop of the leakage of conversations of corporate
lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporates and media personalities which have stirred a
hornets' nest.

Lobbying is a legitimate business in countries like the US, however, opined Diljeet Titus, senior
partner of law firm Titus & Co, "is not recognised in India in statutory or non-statutory form."

On the other hand, he said, "lobbying, which basically means influencing government decisions
externally, could invite Prevention of Corruption Act and may also go against the service rules
for bureaucrats".

Lalit Bhasin, managing partner Bhasin & Co, said, "in the US lobbying is not only for
corporates, but also for appointing judges. It is a flourishing industry there, a recognised mode of
canvassing... In India, it is a developing phenomena like the Public Relations."

He added that lobbying, which is an act of trying to influence government leaders, is not seen as
good corporate practice in India.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he has asked cabinet secretary K M
Chandrasekhar to look into the issue of telephone tapping and suggest measures within a month
to prevent the leakages of recorded conversations outside the government.

Khurshid said that Singh's statement should come as an assurance to industry that their privacy
will be protected.

"(The) PM has made it very very clear what the position is and corporates should be reassured
that there is no question of hiding anything, running away and not explicitly and transparently
explaining why what is done and the extent to which privacy has to be protected and information
has to be protected," Khurshid said.