The high level of media surrounding COVID-19 means attention has been taken away from other areas - as a result the media are making more mistakes than usual, and firms need to be extra vigilant. For instance, we had one Wall Street Journal headline this week which made it look like the affected firm was penalising redemptions with penalty fees – extremely damaging and extremely wrong! In these slides we will look at: What can be done to dial down the risk of a crisis in the first instance. How to prepare for a crisis. How to react when a crisis hits to prevent reputational damage.

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Crisis communications
in a COVID 19 world
W E B I N A R S E R I E S

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Crisis communications in a COVID-19 world
• New webinar series
• Fridays at 4pm BST
• This week – crisis communications
© Peregrine Communications 2020. All rights reserved.

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Agenda
1. How to prepare
2. How to react when a crisis hits
3. Options for stopping or reducing
the impact of negative stories
4. Q&A
Anthony Payne
Chief Executive
Bill McIntosh
Director
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Speakers

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1. How to prepare
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
5 Key Steps
1. Reputation audit and action plan
2. Insider risk assessment and action plan
3. Establish a crisis response capability
4. Optimise Google Page 1
5. Rehearse and test your crisis response capability

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1. How to prepare
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Establish crisis response capability
• Expertise
- Subject matter expertise
- How amendment/correction process works
- Legal context/code of practice
• Teamwork
- Prepared client
- Specialist crisis comms counsel
- Specialist legal counsel
• 24/7 monitoring and response capability
• Rehearse and test

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1. How to prepare
Sort out Google Page 1
• Optimise owned assets
(e.g.) Website
• Optimise shared assets
(e.g. LinkedIn)
• Create new shared assets
(e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Glassdoor
• Create new content
(e.g. Media clips with your firm in the headline)
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
92% of users don’t scroll past the first page.

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2. How to react when a crisis hits
The phone rings, it’s Nishant from Bloomberg
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

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2. How to react when a crisis hits
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
8 Questions to ask Nishant…
1. What type of article is it? News, feature, client or
sector focused?
2. When is publication or deadline for comment?
3. What evidence is journalist relying on?
4. What is the source of the story and how has the
story been verified?
5. Are there any photographs/footage?
6. What does the journalist think is the public
interest in the story?
7. Have you got his contact details?
8. If possible – try to ensure that he sets out his
points/questions in one email.

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2. How to react when a crisis hits
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Deep breath…sort out your messaging
Establish the context
• What questions did Nishant ask?
• What evidence does he have?
• What more could come out (employee
whistle-blower)?
• What are the ‘hot button’ issues?
Unhelpful narratives?
• How does existing corporate messaging apply?
• Is this a story to work with or try to knock out?

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2. How to react when a crisis hits
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Establish the key facts before going on the record
• What happened?
• Why did it happen?
• Has this happened before?
• Will this happen again?
• And, if not, why not?

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3. Can I stop the story or reduce its impact? — Options
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Options
• Negotiate
• Codes of conduct
• Legal

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3. Can I stop the story or reduce its impact? — Negotiate
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
4 D’s
• Diversion
• Delay
• Detail
• Defence

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3. Can I stop the story or reduce its impact? — Codes of conduct
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
3 principles
• Accuracy
• Fairness
• Privacy
Dow Jones
https://www.dowjones.com/code-conduct/
Reuters
https://www.trust.org/contentAsset/raw-
data/652966ab-c90b-4252-b4a5-db8ed1d438ce/file
Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/company/pre
ss/the-bloomberg-way-guide-for-reporters-
and-editors-now-available-to-the-public/

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3. Can I stop the story or reduce its impact? — Regulatory options
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
• Accuracy (no defence)
• Fairness
• Privacy (defence is public interest)
- Clandestine devices (defence is public
interest)
OFCOM
(The Office of Communications
– broadcast regulator)
Examples:
IPSO
(Independent Press
Standards Association)
FCC
(Federal Communications
Commission)

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Legal
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
US/UK-Europe differences:
• First Amendment protects the freedom
of the press
- US less plaintiff friendly
- Different States have different interpretations
• UK/Europe protects individual freedoms
and liberties – hence privacy is more
important
- US is more about protecting property so use
copyright, trademarks to control photos, what you
have written

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Legal — Defamation
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
The publication by a third party of a statement which has caused ‘serious harm’, if a
company that means serious financial loss
Defamation = libel if written, slander if spoken
Need to prove
• Someone made a statement;
• The statement was published;
• The statement caused injury;
• The statement was false; and
• The statement did not fall into a privileged category
Defence
• Truth
• Honest opinion
• Public interest (fair comment)
• Privilege
Damages and injunctions may be available
Trump campaign sues NBC
affiliate for ‘defamatory’
advertisement
https://nypost.com/
“The concern here is not that one of these suits
would win on the merits — it’s the chilling
effect that it has on public discussion of
political affairs,”

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Legal
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Malicious Falsehood
• A false statement (a lie), made
maliciously that causes damage (need
to prove financial loss but not damage
to reputation) to the claimant)
• Often added to the defamation claim
MUSK vs BBC - malicious falsehood
"Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles, we
worked out that on our track it would run
out after just 55 miles and if it does run out
it's not a quick job to charge it up again,"
Clarkson said, according to a transcript of
the show included in the filing.
UNSWORTH vs MUSK - malicious falsehood
”Unsworth is a pedo guy”

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Legal
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Data Protection
• Can claim under the UK Data Protection Act 1998
(‘DPA’) if information is inaccurate but is NOT
- Defamatory and
- Does not cause damage
• Is often added to libel action as a matter of course,
as may still succeed if main libel action fails.

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3. Can I stop the story?
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
Breach of confidence and privacy
• The burden of proof is on the media, and
is high if there is an NDA in place
• Injunction can be granted when no public
interest exists.

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Case Study #1
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
• Sub-head of WSJ story looks like client has added a redemption
penalty, its wrong and very damaging
• Long letter from legal counsel delays immediate correction
• Peregrine engage journalist directly using established formula
to seek rapid correction
• During this process key media who might seek to cover
the story are alerted to the mistake and that we are
seeking correction
• Immediate correction of aggregators repeating the story
(2 at this point)
• Agree amendment with WSJ—subhead is amended
• Other website aggregators contacted and their summaries are
corrected or deleted
• WSJ story is corrected;
• No other Tier 1 media repeat
the story;
• All aggregators have updated
with the correct story
C A S E S T U D Y
O U T C O M E

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Case Study #2
C R I S I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
19:20
Coordinate
with client
& 2 law firms
19:25
Contact the US publication,
obtain corrections and
highlight key points to
relevant US press on a
reactive basis
01:30
Wikipedia
publishes first
entry of ‘scandal’
02:45
Wiki entry removed
after working with
editors
33 real time
corrections, across
2 continents, have
been made
55 real time
corrections, across
3 continents have
been made
08:30
UK kick off
STORY BROKEN
by a US online
publication
19:00
GMT
USA stories
stop
01:00
GMT
Asia publishes
first articles on
story
03:00
GMT
European
journalists ‘kick off’
– calling for
comment
05:00
GMT
67 real time
corrections have
been made
09:00
GMT

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Questions?

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peregrinecommunications.com
Tom Wood
Creative Director
+44 20 3040 0880
Anthony Payne
Chief Executive
+44 20 3178 6869
Thank you for attending
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• Please fill out feedback survey
• Questions?
anthony.payne@peregrinecommunications.com
bill.mcintosh@peregrinecommunications.com
© Peregrine Communications 2020. All rights reserved.
peregrinecommunications.com
Bill McIntosh
Director
+44 203 0400872
Anthony Payne
Chief Executive
+44 20 3178 6869