Phenomenology of Self-Censorship in Public Relations of Government Organizations

Dissemination and free access to information of government organizations with constant care and removal of obstacles related to it guarantees the health of society and the organization. Therefore, the phenomenon of self-censorship in the public relations of government organizations should be considered as one of the major obstacles in this direction. Recognizing and analyzing the causes and contexts of this phenomenon can be a necessary and important step in removing these obstacles. This study was conducted with the aim of in-depth study of the experiences of public relations managers of government organizations in Yazd. It wants to discover and identify their causes and motives in self-censorship. This research has been done in the framework of qualitative studies and in a phenomenological way. The reliability of the research data has been verified based on four criteria of validity; Portability; Verifiability; And reliability. The research findings were classified into 15 sub-topics and 4 main topics. The data show that four factors are influential at the individual, organizational, and extra-organizational levels, including insecurity and need, command-orientation, adherence to the prevailing discourse, and expediency. Considering the great impact of the mentioned factors on the views of public relations managers of government organizations in self-censorship, it can be concluded that facilitating the flow of information as one of the necessities of community development requires serious attention of officials and policy makers to the position and role of public relations.