Campaign Reviews
PR response and issue handling
A practical process for checking facts, assigning response owners, communicating uncertainty and correcting the public record during an issue.
When a concern arises, establish what is known, what is being checked, who may be affected and who can speak for the organisation. Give people practical information as soon as it is reliable. Correct material errors and update the public account as the facts change.
Establish the issue and its immediate effects
Record the report or question that brought the issue to attention, including its wording, source and time received. Identify who may need information now. A customer facing a service disruption may need instructions before its cause is known; a journalist questioning a study figure needs the calculation checked.
Assign an issue owner to gather information and keep decisions current. Bring in people who hold the relevant records or operate the affected service. Seek appropriate specialist review for a serious allegation or legal question while factual checks continue.
Prioritise checks by materiality
When several claims need checking, assess which facts are most material and what harm could follow if people rely on them while they remain unverified. The ABC’s accuracy guidance says the effort needed depends on the type and subject of the content, audience expectations, likely impact of reliance, and the circumstances in which it was made and presented.
Treat a serious allegation or a figure that could change a person’s decisions as needing greater checking effort than a minor detail. The ABC’s guidance calls for reasonable efforts to make material facts accurate and contextual, and says factual content should not materially mislead. These are ABC editorial standards, not a universal rule for every organisation.
Build a working account
Keep a dated record of confirmed facts and their sources, claims still being checked, and questions that cannot yet be answered. Name an owner for each open question. Separate what happened from an explanation of why: a team may establish when a service stopped before it establishes the cause.
Check the first public description against that record. Does it accurately identify the affected group and period? Is a planned action described as planned? Does it imply that an investigation has concluded when it has only begun? Narrow any claim the evidence cannot support.
| What the team has | What the response can say |
|---|---|
| A confirmed fact | State it with its relevant scope and time. |
| An unresolved question | Name what is being checked and how people will receive an update. |
| An immediate action for affected people | Give the action and any condition that limits it. |
| An error in released material | Identify and correct the affected statement. |
Account for publication standards
If the issue concerns material published by a media outlet, distinguish the organisation’s own factual account from the outlet’s editorial responsibilities. The Australian Press Council’s Statement of General Principles applies to publications within its jurisdiction. It requires them to take reasonable steps to ensure factual material is accurate, not misleading and distinguishable from opinion.
The Press Council’s principles also call for correction or other adequate remedial action when published material is significantly inaccurate or misleading. They provide context for assessing a concern about coverage, but criticism by itself does not establish an error or determine the appropriate response.
Key Principles from Australian Standards
- Australian Press Council - Accuracy
- Take reasonable steps to ensure factual content is accurate and not misleading
- ABC - Editorial Standards
- Factual content should not materially mislead; context matters
- Correction Requirement
- Publish correction or adequate remedial action if material inaccuracy is found
- AGCMF Framework (Australia)
- Guidance for crisis management and communications during incidents
Choose the response and its owner
Use channels that reach the people who need the information. A direct notice may serve affected customers; a public page can hold a current account; a journalist’s question calls for a reply to that journalist. Each should draw on the same checked facts, though the detail may differ.
Give someone responsibility for current public wording and a clear route for subject experts to challenge it. Record the approved version, its time and where it was used. Brief spokespeople on confirmed facts, material limits and where to send a new question.
An early response can acknowledge the concern, state what has been confirmed and explain the next check. Promise an update time only when someone owns it and can reasonably meet it. If the timing changes, say so through the same route.
Coordinate communication reach
Map who needs to hear from the organisation and whether they need different routes to receive the information. Professional Planner’s crisis-communications advice says to communicate the issue to clients, relevant authorities and the media as soon as a crisis happens. Use that audience list alongside the specific affected groups identified during triage.
For a health or disaster-related issue, identify communication and inclusion needs in the response plan so affected communities can access relevant information.
Correct and update the record
Distinguish a wrong fact from information learned later. If the organisation supplied an incorrect figure, date or description, identify the earlier statement, correct the source material and contact known recipients of that version.
Check affected charts, downloads and prepared statements as well as the main page. Make a material correction visible so readers can tell which account is current.
When a new fact is established, date the update and explain what changed. Recheck headlines and short posts so they do not make a broader claim than the full account. Keep a log of questions, replies, public versions and commitments.
Coverage may reveal a misunderstanding, but criticism alone does not prove an error. Compare a published claim with its source before asking an outlet to change it.
Review the response
Before closing the response process, check that affected people have the available practical information, material errors have been addressed and outstanding commitments have owners. Record any remaining uncertainties. Assess whether checks were prioritised appropriately, information reached the right audiences and handovers worked. Note delays or gaps that affected the response.
Apply review findings
Assign an owner to each improvement and record how the team will apply it in a future response.
In this guide
- Preparing a factual response to a journalist's concernHow to answer a journalist's concern with checked facts, clear limits, an agreed deadline and a reliable follow-up.
- Correcting an error in a published company studyTrace a study error through its results, headline and distributed materials, then publish and notify a clear correction.
- Coordinating spokesperson statements during an issueAssign spokesperson roles, maintain a current fact brief and correct conflicting statements as an issue develops.
- Avoiding speculation in a public responseIdentify unsupported claims about cause, scale and future outcomes, then state what is known and what remains open.
