It took awhile for the taxi company to response and clarify about the figure. If the ministry and the taxi company have taken the initiatives to clarify earlier, people would not start to have a bad impression of the minister and the taxi company. The timing of disclosure is also another important factor to a good PR exercise.

The official word will appear in the papers.

But none of it was recorded.

With the Internet, you have forums, blogs, etc. What you write and post it on the Internet, not only it is recorded for eternity (or until you never pay the hosting service) and it is googlable for the world to see and read.

Not just that, gadgets let you take photos and videos and with services like flickr and Youtube, you can host them and embed them almost immediately.

That’s why it is important to handle crisis fast. Use these web tools that are available to convey your message.

Unfortunately, those senior people see these new web tools only for amatuer use only and they should approach the traditional media to explain the situation.

While waiting for it to appear in traditional media, the peeps on the Internet are already gossiping about your brand and causing more damage.

Might have worked in the past. But with the Net and the speed of information dissemination nowadays, big wide openness is the way to go.