The digital age has given public relations professionals many new opportunities and challenges. Technology and social media have brought us closer to the public and our clients’ customers, yet opened a Pandora’s Box of ethical issues.

Perhaps the most valuable construct of the digital age is to the ability businesses now have to acquire real-time feedback from customers who may be thousands of miles from corporate headquarters. As business has expanded globally so, too, have the challenges for PR professionals to operate ethically in cultures whose norms may not correspond with those of Western business values and are often viewed through differing lenses.

This reality is especially prevalent in developing economies, such as China. While the local public relations industry may be nascent one practice is anything but: paying for positive media coverage.

Long the scourge of Western media, the prevalence of this pernicious practice within Chinese media was revealed in a recent front-page expose in The New York Times.

Despite how unseemly this practice may seem, is it unethical? PR professionals in the US and UK would likely say “yes, unequivocally“. But what about those practitioners who work in China and other developing economies? They face the realities of operating in regions in which standards of practice are still forming, outdated or, in some cases, ignored.

Rather than overtly condemn those who engage in such spurious actions, we should consider the following: What is viewed as “right” or ethical in one country in terms of business and media practices may not be "right" in another.

We need to consider whether it’s appropriate to try to match Western concepts of business and media ethics with wildly divergent practices elsewhere. Otherwise, we’ll just be howling into the wind about how wrong it is for companies to pay for media coverage and how unethical it is for PR firms to facilitate that favourable coverage. No matter how much that offends Westerners, it isn’t likely to change things in China or other nations where state-run media are in control.

It was encouraging, therefore, to read the explanations of executives from two well-known, global PR firms, in The Times piece. Each made clear that while their respective firms find the practice of paying media for positive coverage to be unsavoury, and perhaps unethical, they are operating within the standards of practice in that region.

“Our policy is to advise our clients to not participate in such activities,” stated an executive from Ogilvy & Mather’s Beijing office, in response to a New York Times reporter’s questions. The O&M executive went on to note, however, that in some industries, such as luxury, the practice of “soft news placement” is common, regardless of the country in which the story is published.

American-based PR firm Ruder Finn was unequivocal in its unease with the practice. “Although we know [paying the media is] a normal practice in China, we never pay the media,” said Jean-Michel Dumont, chairman of Ruder Finn Asia.

As the ethics of the PR and media industries continue to be called into question it’s imperative that public relations practitioners look closely at how their work lines up against the ethical standards of their peers. But we also must not make scapegoats out of those professionals and firms that are merely practicing within a culture’s accepted norms.

That’s not to make an excuse for actions that are unethical no matter what country they take place in. Ethics should be a universal consideration of all professionals.

Certainly, stringent ethical standards in PR must remain intact. Equally important, however, is that the profession is flexible enough to adapt to evolving business practices as economies emerge and prosper. Doing so will ensure the strength of public relations’ ethical standards is equalled by its flourishing value in both developed and emerging markets.

Gerard F Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA, is chair and chief executive officer of the Public Relations Society of America.