6 - 12 July 2000

European public relations appointment for Maltese practitioner

A Maltese public relations expert has been appointed national coordinator for Malta in a project being conducted by The European Confederation of Public Relations (CERP).

Carmel Bonello, an M.Sc. graduate in public relations from the University of Stirling in Scotland, has over 12 years' experience in the field and is the senior manager - public relations and head of BPC's Public Relations Department.

The aim of the project is to codify the existing body of public relations literature in Europe and to enable its fuller use and affirmation, which at present is restricted by linguistic, cultural and administrative barriers.

This initiative is called the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge (EBOK) project and consists of two sub-projects: the collection of an all-European bibliography in the field of public relations and a Delphi study to gain knowledge on the present state of the profession in Europe. The project is to include all 43 countries of Europe and their respective languages, including Malta and the Maltese language.

The EBOK task force team is collaborating with CERP Education and Research to build up a pan-European network of national coordinators for the project.

Some 5Q experts, both practitioners and academics, representing as many European countries will be participating in this study by making valuable contributions to a Delphi study on the state of public relations in Europe in their specific countries.

"While the term 'European' can have a descriptive, that is physical, and a substantial, that is social, meaning, it is necessary to start the investigation with the former and empirically confirm or refute the latter," said Dejan Vercic, the European coordinator of the EBOK project.

At the moment, far too little is known about the developments on the continent as a whole to make any claims about the state of public relations in Europe at the beginning of the 21st century. "It is hoped that the EBOK project has at least initiated a process. This will enable a disciplined evaluation to be made, and based on which all those interested in the field will be able to make informed decisions on the future directions of their work or some common work to be done," said Mr Vercic.