The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the peak PR industry body in the United Kingdom, is talking up recent changes to its self-regulatory code of conduct. The CIPR has amended its regulations to enable an ethics investigation to be commenced without having to wait for a complaint from a member.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, an Associate Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, recounts her experience of speaking at a recent medical conference in New Mexico on the topic of drug industry influence in medical education. "Immediately after my talk, one pharmaceutical company representative announced to a conference organiser that her company would no longer support the annual conference. Another packed up his exhibit and walked out," she writes in the British Medical Journal.

The PR firm Lee Andrews Group has agreed to pay the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) $1 million over six years to resolve issues raise in an audit of its work.