Comments and Issues
News Release
10th December 2009
Public Relations Diploma Awarded to Jersey PR Consultant
Channel Islands public relations practitioner, Adam Riddell, has been awarded a Diploma in public relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations following the completion of an intensive, one year online course.
Adam, an account manager at Crystal PR, is one of only 20 people in the British Isles to obtain a Distinction out of more than 250 who initially registered for the course and of the 134 who completed it during this academic year.
Educated at Victoria College and a graduate of the University of Warwick, Adam, currently training and education officer for the CIPR Channel Islands Group, entered the PR profession in Jersey four years ago when joining Crystal PR.
CIPR President, Kevin Taylor, said:
‘Undertaking a CIPR professional qualification demonstrates a commitment to professionalism and to raising the standards of the PR Industry. Passing the course is a tremendous achievement and shows that Adam is a strategic thinker and skilled PR practitioner – an asset to any employer of client.’
Crystal PR, which has previously obtained national recognition from the CIPR for the developing of young talent in the Industry, funded Adam’s course costs. Managing Director Mike Sunier added:
‘Adam is one of only a small number of public relations professionals working in Jersey to have this qualification, which requires a considerable commitment in study time. It’s a tough and intensive assessment programme which includes the writing of three substantial dissertations during the year, so to achieve a Distinction overall is an outstanding result.’
Ends.
Article
It’s time for PR to become the priority
By Mike Sunier, Managing Director, Crystal Public Relations Limited
Published in Business Brief April 2009
What do we do about the negative coverage about Jersey in the national and international press?
It’s a question that has been asked consistently for as long as I have been working in the PR industry in the Channel Islands and it has become particularly pertinent at present. The gathering momentum from Western Governments to lay some of the blame for the present banking crisis on poor regulation and a lack of transparency in offshore jurisdictions, has brought the issue back onto the front pages with some gusto.
The Islands’ Governments now appreciates there is a need to be proactive, to respond to the criticisms and not be caught on the backfoot. They support their respective finance industry bodies in their efforts to influence the debate and Government ministers have also been interviewed and occasionally quoted in the national and international media. We now have the capabilities, the budgets and the conviction that the Islands need to defend their leading industry, but they also need to overcome one more hurdle – they have to make it the priority.
Considerable attention has been focused on the G20 meeting on April 2nd and announcements that might arise from this in respect of the offshore jurisdictions. Regardless of the outcome of that event, the focus on the integrity of otherwise of using offshore jurisdictions is unlikely to go away.
Its interesting to analyse how the media coverage is shifting. Last month we had serious broadsheet newspapers criticising Government ministers on their front pages simply because they had previously been represented on boards of businesses based in offshore jurisdictions, as if this action alone by a minister was inappropriate. The offshore jurisdictions have a battle to engage because the notion that avoiding punitive taxes through a legitimate offshore arrangement is now being positioned as unacceptable for individuals and corporations. The moral argument has been to the forefront in these difficult economic times. Notice too that Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the course of the month has included a subtle shift in the content of his speeches from talking about stopping tax evasion to curbing tax avoidance and from closing tax havens to ending offshore jurisdictions.
Is this rhetoric or has there been a sea change in attitudes towards the whole concept of tax planning? Jersey and similar centres, both hope and believe, it is the former, but there is no doubt that the authorities can not wait to find out during the months ahead, but must engage first hand in influencing the future of the global finance industry and to make sure there is a place in it for compliant, well regulated offshore jurisdictions.
Whatever happens at the G20, and many I suspect will expect decisions will be fudged, the issue of the integrity of offshore jurisdictions remains with us and Jersey has to respond with a considered public relations campaign and part of it must be to engage with the national and international media that have influence on decision makers.
To be on the front foot now means Government representatives willing to devote whole chunks of their busy schedule to meeting journalists in London and elsewhere to explain to them what it means to operate well regulated, highly regarded financial services centres and why Jersey and Guernsey should not be grouped together with centres such as the Netherlands Antilles, Liechtenstein, Antigua and even Switzerland. For once, Government work, ministerial meetings and other priorities will have to be re-arranged or other ministers drafted in to handle them. For now, some of our senior ministers need to be at the offices of the Financial Times, the BBC and other top media with their advisers, and briefing them in one to one meetings so that these journalists who will continue to write about the subject long after the G20 summit is over, understand the issues and the value that centres such as Jersey and Guernsey provide to neighbouring onshore economies particularly the UK. There is a surprising amount of academic evidence to back this up but to date precious little reporting of it.
The time has come for the Channel Islands to join with like minded offshore jurisdictions to argue their case. If Jersey and Guernsey bring value to the onshore economies because of their offshore capabilities, we are not the only ones and we could work with other well regulated, compliant centres to argue the case more strongly. This would also assist with the resource issue and the costs of trying to influence in places such as Washington and Brussels. Should we be considering the formation of our own trade body for jurisdictions that meet regulatory and transparency criteria that we, as jurisdictions define are acceptable, so we can speak as a more influential voice? As always actions speak louder than words and the most effective PR is when action is taken.
Ironically there has never been a better time to influence the national and international media about offshore. Since its now on their radar as a legitimate news story, they are more willing to listen to arguments on both sides. As decisions by the G20 are likely to take some time to formulate, there is still time to bring more balance to the media debate but it will mean making public relations a real priority in the months ahead, something the governments of the Islands have not done to date.
Article
Jersey copes with the downturn and the threat from the G20
By Mike Sunier, Managing Director, Crystal Public Relations Limited
Published in Money Media, Isle of Man April 2009
Considering the scale of the global economic downturn, Jersey’s Finance Industry has been holding up well. The figures for its banking and funds industries have shown only a modest fall when compared to a year ago and many firms are still reporting plenty of business flows.
A typical example would be in the legal sector, part of which has been hit by the capital markets implosion and the reduction in securitisation business. But corporate lawyers are very adaptable and they are now receiving more instructions on re-structuring and insolvencies, an inevitable result of these recessionary times. In addition, while there may be less funds available for investment purposes from the world’s banks, there are plenty of individuals with substantial sums who are seeking the appropriate investment structure. In some cases these individuals appear to be wealthier than some of the better known banking names on the High Street.
Although business flows are positive, the Industry is not immune from the fall out from the banking crisis and the severe economic downturn. Job losses have already been announced in the banking sector and the downturn is affecting other parts of the economy. Some High Street shops have closed, mostly as a result of announcements by the parent organisations in the UK and there is a general concern about the future. Building sites for office developments do not seem as active as they were a year ago and the pressure to press on with the multi million pound development on the waterfront do not seem so evident.
Guernsey is looking particularly vulnerable since it chose not to introduce a goods and sales tax at the same time as Jersey did, and last week the Government announced that it needed to raise more cash to balance the budget. Commentators expect tax raising measures later in the year.
Alongside the economic factors, we have the political ones. For the first time the offshore jurisdictions really are on the radar of western leaders and, as a result, offshore jurisdictions are on the news agenda as never before. Forget the occasional corruption or tax evasion case which might make the front page or the sniping of the left wing press based on the comments of the anti-offshore brigade, this time the media assault is full on.
The good news is that its not just about the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, the bad news is the British Crown Dependencies gets corralled into every story about ‘nasty’ tax havens even if not mentioned by name.
It’s a tough call to influence the national media and the cause is not helped by the inevitable lack of co-ordination between jurisdictions. While centres such as the Channel Islands do not have banking secrecy laws, other centres do and for the media to differentiate between individual locations in a tight, crisply worded news report is difficult. The Islands suffer because of the inevitable need for the national and international media to concentrate only on the bigger picture.
They report on the world economic downturn and how it will be tackled and they are not interested in whether Jersey and Guernsey has the same secrecy laws as Switzerland and Andorra or whether Jersey has signed far more Tax Information Exchange Agreements than some other locations. It will only become important if the politicians begin to differentiate, as they should, if they intend to be fair about the commitment that some centres have shown to the information exchange process. To further highlight Jersey’s position, the Island authorities are this month signing two more agreements, with the UK and with France. However, Jersey is emershed in the whole business of global politics so we will have to wait to see whether fairness plays a part in the process.
Jersey’s Government representatives are doing what they can to influence opinion, traveling to Washington and London for example, and the voice of the Industry, Jersey Finance, is talking to as many international media as possible. If ever there was a time for a successful PR campaign to influence political leaders and their advisers, now is it.