Who will be responsible for media relations?

The incident management (IM) team should incorporate a sub-group responsible for handling media relations. This sub-group would typically include senior people within the company with the broad overview of the company's approach to such matters (and its brand values), PR/comms specialists (internal and external), in-house lawyers and people with detailed knowledge of the relevant issue (the communications have to be tightly tied to the evolving factual position and the identified risks).

It is important to keep the IM team to a manageable size. Consider instructing appropriately qualified and experienced external advisers - particularly when significant public and media interest is expected. Specialised crisis communications agencies can add real value, alongside your internal PR/comms function and can provide a seasoned perspective on developments and key access to opinion formers (Freshfields works closely with a number of these agencies).