Farewell CSR, hello corporate libel action : Spada Professional Services PR Firm

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Farewell CSR, hello corporate libel action

November 20, 2008

Spada’s White Paper on trends in Environmental Reporting shows that FTSE 100 companies have largely jettisoned the term “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) in favour of simply “corporate responsibility” (CR). It is hypothesized that the change has occurred because “the term ’social’ has connotations of the ’soft’, ‘touchy-feely’, old-style practices of random philanthropy”, so too that it may evoke too fulsome a connection with HR. Nowadays, “CR people emphasise that their job is about businesses behaving responsibly in everything they do and should be fully integrated into the business - and they want to be taken seriously.”

Companies do indeed take themselves increasingly seriously. Fleet Street is awash with letters before action from libel lawyers acting for the big corporates as never before. The law remains the same - a company will have to prove damage to its wallet, not merely its reputation, to prevail in a libel claim - but the collapse in value among so many institutions has put a premium on accurate corporate reportage. These days, it’s that much easier to say that there’s a correlation between adverse publicity and a dwindling share price.

The dropping of the word “social” may therefore herald a move away from a softer corporate style - just as the rise of the corporate libel action may illumine the darker side of corporate responsibility: the need, in harsh market, to do utilise the defamation laws to protect shareholder value.

Image courtesy of Flickr.

Written by admin · Filed Under Communication, Legal Business, Real Estate, Wealth Management

2 Responses to “Farewell CSR, hello corporate libel action”

Nigel
Posted: Nov 21st, 2008 at 2:01 pm

Actionable only if proof of wallet damage? What about the old rule to the contrary from the South Hetton Coal Compay case, upheld by the House of Lords in Jameel (2006)?

Admin
Posted: Nov 21st, 2008 at 3:54 pm

Hi Nigel,

Blade was perhaps imprecise with his words… However, isn’t one point from South Hetton that a company can bring a claim sans proof of wallet damage, but that any damages awarded will be small?

By all means illuminate further and put Blade in his place!

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