Every day people interact and share information among each other. What we think, what we say, what we write and what we stand by, as individuals affects everyday lives, for better or worse, and at times it provokes concequences that were the least expected. Since we are being overwhelmed by information and limitless access to it, ethical communication, especially ethical public communication has become one of the pillars to strong democracies worldwide. So what are the most important elements of an ethical public speech? To answer this question, we need to revise, why do we engage in public speaking at the first place? We can use public speech to inform audience about something or to persuade them into something. Persuasive speech is in general the kind of public speech that politicians use in their campaigns. An ethical public speech is the one that is based on realiable information and the person who shares the information will always name its source. The foundation for an ethical public speech is to tell the truth and be honest towards your audience. First, because you want to build your image as a person of integrity, and the second because the words of public figures like politicians can result in regrettable concequences. If a president of a certain country missleads the nation and manipulates the people with information regarding e.g. public healthcare reform, this can create polarizing opinions and increase the tension among people. Words matter. Civil society depends on free speech, different perspective and the tolerance of dissent. Diversity of perspective enables people to create their opinion and make decisions based on arguments and realiable sources of information. Unfortunately, distorted information are very present in the political context. Social media have enabled almost any person to share information or to promote all kinds of ideas and thoughts, among them political views. This means that one person can reach vast audience to consume their content and persuade its users in things that might be true as well as false. Social media have become tools to spread enormous amount of disinformation, which causes political and social tension, and it often results in real life violence. This is why words matter. As much as we cherish the freedom of speech and different perspective, there is a very thin line in what is free speaking and what is the hate speech, and what is the level of harm done by using it. An ethical speech can never contain any words which demean or belittle any group of people. Hate speech, distortion of information, misinformation are all social phenomena that cause a lot of damage and that can affect stabilty, security and well being of an individual and groups. For all the above mentioned, politicians, celebrities or any other person should check information before they talk about it and accept the responsibility for actions that can be caused by their public speaking or social media sharing. Integrity in public communication is important to every single one of us.
