Dear colleagues, members and friends of PRISA
As we reach the end of 2025, I want to start with a simple acknowledgement. This has been a big year. Big for our country, big for our continent, and big for a profession that has had to hold the line on truth, trust and humanity in a noisy and often polarised world.
Yet, in the middle of all that, you have continued to show up. You have written, filmed, advised, mediated, corrected, apologised, rebuilt and reimagined. You have protected reputations when it mattered most and you have helped organisations communicate with more honesty and courage. For that, I want to say thank you.
A year of rebuilding and reimagining PRISA
Within PRISA itself, this has been a year of renewal. We have continued the journey that many of you began before my term as president, to rebuild the institute as a credible, relevant home for public relations and communication professionals in Southern Africa.
Some of the highlights include:
• The 2025 PRISMS Summit and Awards, where we came together under the theme The human factor to explore how we balance technology, AI and data with authenticity, ethics and empathy.
• Celebrating campaigns and professionals who are redefining Southern Africa’s voice on the global stage and showing that world-class work does not only come from the Global North.
• Continuing the work to reposition PRISA, refresh our brand and strengthen our committees, councils and programmes so that membership is not a badge, but a genuine community and career advantage.
Behind the scenes, we have also invested in the less glamorous, but essential, work of governance, structure, and accountability: aligning our membership model, strengthening our financial oversight and beginning to define clearer standards for what good practice looks like in South Africa and on the continent.
The world we are working in
We are doing this in a context that is shifting under our feet.
Globally, our profession has increasingly been called into the front line of democracy, climate action, and digital integrity. The Global Alliance has been a leading voice in calling for responsible communication to become a new Sustainable Development Goal, recognising that the health of our information environment is now as critical as the health of our air and water.
This year also saw the launch of the first global DEI Policy Framework for public relations and communication, which reinforces that inclusion, representation, and equity are not nice-to-have add-ons, but central to our licence to operate as communicators.
On the African continent, we have seen how disinformation and coordinated influence operations can undermine trust in elections and institutions, especially when they exploit real grievances and inequalities. At the same time, research is telling us that ethics and digital transformation are now key drivers of our evolving PR industry in Africa, with practitioners hopeful about AI as a tool, but deeply concerned about its potential to fuel misinformation and manipulation if left unchecked.
For South African practitioners, there is a growing debate about content moderation, online safety and the regulation of harmful content. That debate will only intensify, and communication professionals will have to play an active role in shaping fair, workable frameworks that protect people without silencing legitimate voices.
In short, we are no longer only crafting messages. We are co-designing the information ecosystems that societies rely on.
Where PR and communications are heading
Looking into 2026 and beyond, a few trends are clear:
• Artificial intelligence will continue to reshape how we work, from media monitoring and insight generation to content development and measurement. The opportunity is to use it to deepen our strategic value, not replace our humanity.
• Trust and relevance will remain our core currency. Journalists and audiences are overwhelmed with content. They are looking for fewer, more meaningful stories, backed by real substance and real action.
• Measurement will evolve beyond clicks. With more searches ending without a click, and more content consumed inside platforms, we will need smarter ways of demonstrating impact, particularly around reputation, behaviour and relationships.
• Ethics, transparency and accountability will move from the margins to the centre of client briefs. Whether it is climate misinformation, political polarisation or corporate greenwashing, communicators will be asked to advise not only on what to say, but on what is responsible and fair to say.
PRISA has a responsibility, and a real opportunity, to help lead the profession through this shift in South Africa and across the region.
The human factor and the need to rest
Amid all this change, one theme kept coming up at the PRISMS Summit and in our member conversations this year. The human factor.
Many of you have shared honestly about burnout, compassion fatigue, mental health and the emotional labour that comes with being the person who has to hold the crisis together in the room. You are the ones answering calls at 11pm, absorbing the anxiety of leadership teams, and trying to find constructive language in situations that often feel anything but.
So, as president of PRISA, I want to say this clearly. Rest is not indulgent. Rest is responsible.
Switching off for a few weeks at the end of the year is not a luxury. It is part of your professional duty to your clients, your teams and your own reputation. A depleted communicator cannot give good counsel. A rested one can change the course of a business, a community or a country.
Renew your reputation, starting with yourself
This is why, in January, PRISA will be launching our Renew Your Reputation membership campaign, anchored in Health and Wellness Month for our profession.
The idea is simple. Your reputation is your most valuable asset, but it does not look after itself. Renewing your membership is one part of that story, because it keeps you connected to standards, networks, learning and recognition. The other part is renewing you.
Throughout January we will be sharing content, activities and conversations that focus on:
• Wellness as the best PR, because when the human behind the communicator is well, the work improves.
• Tools and insights to help you navigate AI, ethics and disinformation with more confidence and less fear.
• Stories from members who are rebuilding their careers, agencies and in house teams in more sustainable, human centred ways.
It is an invitation to renew your membership, yes, but more importantly it is an invitation to renew how you want to show up in this profession in 2026.
A thank you, and a look ahead
As we close the year, I want to thank you for:
• Your commitment to ethical, responsible communication in a time when it would be easier to cut corners.
• Your participation in PRISA events, committees, working groups and conversations, often on top of very demanding day jobs.
• Your patience with us as we do the hard, sometimes slow work of modernising and strengthening the institute itself.
PRISA is not perfect. Neither is our industry. But I am more convinced than ever that we are moving in the right direction together, and that the demand for credible, skilled, principled communicators will only grow.
My wish for you and your teams is that you find real rest in the coming weeks. May you unplug properly, reconnect with the people and places that matter, and come back in January with enough energy to renew your reputation and to keep shaping a more honest, inclusive and resilient information environment.
Thank you for everything you have done this year. I am proud to serve you as president, and I am excited for what we will build together in 2026.
Warm regards
Bradly Howland
President, Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA)