Public relations professionals worldwide marked World PR Day today, July 16, 2026, under the theme “The Golden Age of Strategic PR,” with calls for the industry to embrace ethical counsel, early decision-making input, and accountability in an era defined by artificial intelligence, climate pressure, and misinformation.

In a feature article to commemorate the day, PR and Management Consultant Daniel Ampim Adu argued that modern PR has outgrown its traditional role of “writing press releases, arranging events and responding to media enquiries.” Instead, he said, its true value now lies in helping leaders “understand risk, listen to stakeholders, protect trust and make decisions that can withstand public scrutiny.”

“Communication cannot be treated as an activity that begins only after a decision has been made,” Adu wrote. “The PR professional must be involved early enough to test assumptions, anticipate public reaction, identify affected groups and advise leadership on the human consequences of policy.”

Local Heritage, Global Moment
Adu paid tribute to Ghana’s tradition of communicators, citing President John Dramani Mahama’s communications background and the legacies of figures including the late J.E. Allotey Pappoe, Kojo Yankah, Vicky Wireko-Andoh, Major Albert Don-Chebe (Rtd.), and Esther A.N. Cobbah. Their careers, he said, show PR is “most valuable when it is linked to leadership, national development and public service.”

While World PR Day creates a global moment, Adu stressed that each country must give it local meaning. For Ghana, he proposed an agenda focused on ethical leadership, public trust, misinformation, environmental responsibility, professional standards, and AI use.

From Awareness to Behaviour Change: The Galamsey Test
Adu identified illegal small-scale mining, or galamsey, as a “defining test for strategic communication in Ghana.” He argued that repeated warnings have failed because campaigns rely on “frightening images and general appeals alone.”

An effective response, he said, requires four elements:
1. Segmenting audiences — miners, financiers, traditional authorities, buyers, and affected communities have different motives.
2. Using credible local messengers — chiefs, teachers, health workers, and responsible miners.
3. Explaining lawful alternatives — “behaviour rarely changes where people see no viable option.”
4. Linking communication to visible enforcement — “Public education without fair enforcement becomes noise; enforcement without explanation can breed resistance.”

Campaigns must publish measurable results: restored sites, prosecutions, changes in water quality, and livelihoods created.

AI: Tool, Not Replacement
Artificial intelligence is reshaping PR, Adu noted. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Jasper can aid monitoring, translation, and drafting, freeing practitioners for “judgement, relationships and strategy.”

But he warned: “Speed is not the same as wisdom.” AI can reproduce bias, invent facts, and amplify misinformation. He called for safeguards: no sensitive data in public AI systems, mandatory fact-checking, disclosure of synthetic media, and human approval for high-risk communication.

“Technology can generate options; it cannot accept moral responsibility,” Adu wrote. “Relationship capital, cultural intelligence, credibility and courage cannot be produced by a prompt.”

To illustrate, he described “Kwabena, a traditional okyeame” who uses local-language AI to draft sanitation messages in Twi and Ga, but vets them with elders and adjusts based on community feedback. “AI assists with speed and scale; Kwabena remains responsible for truth, cultural meaning and trust.”

The Human Standard
Adu concluded that the “Golden Age of Strategic PR” will not be defined by content volume or platforms used, but by “the quality of their judgement and the trust they earn.”

“Public relations cannot permanently repair a gap between what an organisation says and what it does. Its highest purpose is to help leadership close that gap,” he wrote.

He urged practitioners to recommit “to research before speaking, to listen before advising, to separate truth from convenience, to protect the vulnerable, to challenge misinformation and to use technology without surrendering human responsibility.”

“Be proud to practise public relations — and be accountable for the trust the profession carries,” Adu said.

Report by Bernard K Dadzie Greater Accra Region