News Interview
- 255 candidates; 160 passed - 63 per cent

This story was about a racist attack on Rodford House, Newton Road, Oxdown, which was due to house the town's first asylum seekers. It provided a good test of news sense as well as other interviewing skills.

However, too many candidates either ignored or dramatically played down the racism angle as to render it worthless. Yet, there were direct references i.e. Chief Inspector Michael Taylor's quote and Reverend Jonathan Saxon's quote - both in the written brief. The interviewee script mentioned the racist graffiti and vitriolic letters from residents.

There were also examples of interviewees not accepting the attack as racist, despite the evidence, and indicating as such to candidates.

On the reverse side, a number of candidates, desperate to impress, turned Oxdown into a hot bed of racial mayhem despite a statement in the written brief that incidents of racism were rare in the town.

The top scoring papers did make the most of this angle. But the question has to be asked why some candidates thought the racism angle was of little or no importance. Is it because too many newsrooms unnecessarily 'play safe', putting off reporters using anything slightly contentious? Or is it a question of poor legal knowledge / news sense (perhaps both)?

When it came to reporting the actual attack, many accounts were lacking. In some cases, damage described as appalling was not detailed; the small fire behind the front door became a towering inferno; the petrol and rags used to start it, a " petrol bomb". One candidate had the police putting out the fire, and several reports failed to mention the police or fire brigade involvement. Reporting a simple emergency is basic journalism.

The sequence of events even managed to escape many of the reports i.e. that the council gave control of the flats to Walton Housing Association six months earlier because they were sub-standard and not fit for the housing stock.

When the council was asked by the Government to find accommodation, it referred the matter to the association, which refurbished the flats with Government (NASS) money.

Inevitably, the quality of news writing varied enormously, some candidates displaying much more discipline and flair than others. By far the biggest weakness was sentence construction, which made reports confusing and difficult to read. It would help if newsrooms could, at least, help trainees with this aspect.

Language

On the spelling front, Rodford House because Rodman, Radford, Rodwell, Redford and Romford. Disappointing, as it appeared in the written brief.

Queue-jumping became cue-jumping (surely a snooker hall antic).

An attempt was made to turn the noun graffiti into a verb 'graffitied', and one candidate even had the despicable racist wording 'adorned' on the walls.

There was considerable misuse of the words 'yob' and 'thug' to describe the perpetrators of the attack. As one marker put it: "These protesters could have been university professors."

Howlers included: "They set light to the entrance hall using petrol and old rags and smashed windows."

"Mr Lyons revealed he had received letters against the move to house asylum seekers, two of which have been handed to police."

"Mr Lyons ... revealed that work on the property, which cost £10,800, had been completed ..."

"(police comment on attack) ... which they believe was carried out by at least one individual." (Or poltergeist?)

Find out who's passed their exams
PLUS