The ethical behavior has long been a subject of the strategic communication discipline, but in South Africa, there are scarce empirical researches of ethical practice to date. In this paper through interviews with ten South African strategic communication practitioners in diverse organisations. We examine what constitutes ethical communication and the roles of practitioners in guiding the organisation toward considering ethics during a crisis. Findings reveal ten moral compass roles which are categorized into ethical counsel and advocacy role types. Although marked (...) with legal, leaders/clients who want practitioners to compromise on ethical counsel roles, practitioners were defining organisation's ethics role. (shrink)