Unlike other professions that are protected by official regulators, it is the responsibility of professional bodies to act as authoritative power that protects the integrity of the PR industry (Tench and Yeomans, 2014). Doorley and Garcia (2011) argue, however, that such regulating professional associations have no true controlling authority at all, as their membership is optional to PR practitioners. Voluntary membership implies that there will always be non-members who are excluded from abiding the codes of conduct and their enforcement (Doorley and Garcia, 2011). Even though professional bodies, including the CIPR, invite non-members to honour their codes for the sake professionalism, voluntary membership makes disciplinary sanctions outside
