NEWSPAPER PRACTICE
- 126 candidates;
- 99 passed - 79 per cent

The examiners' report:

The overall standard of the papers submitted for this NCE was extremely good and this is reflected in the pass rate this time for this section of the NCE.

Several candidates produced truly outstanding papers that were a pleasure to mark and would suggest that the reporters who produced them must be great assets to their employers.

The repeated warnings given in previous reports about candidates using their time wisely and answering fully all the questions they choose on the paper seem to have been heeded with fewer papers that were obviously hurried.

Quite often in the past a satisfactory law answer has been followed by two obviously rushed practice questions, which scored poorly and candidates failed as a result.

This situation seems to have occurred a little less frequently in this NCE and future candidates would be well-advised to note that.

Question 1 required candidates to recognise that the offence being investigated by police carrying out the raids – trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation – is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which affords lifetime anonymity to its victims.

This was reasonably clear from the scenario as described, and the relevant chapter of McNae highlights trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation as a new offence created by the 2003 Act.

Once this was spotted the remainder of the question involved non-identification of victims as well as the potential contempt posed by information released after warrants for arrest had been issued.

Some candidates were penalised for the basic error of claiming privilege as a defence against contempt.

It is the moderator's belief that this confusion arises because the phrase 'fair, accurate and contemporaneous' is used in both the definition of the requirements of the defence of absolute privilege and in Section 4 (1) of the Contempt of Court Act in reference to the defence for reports of court.

Could all future candidates please note that privilege is a defence against libel, it has nothing to do with contempt and candidates that claim that it is a contempt defence in an answer are giving a very clear indication to examiners that their knowledge of the law is incomplete.

Question 2 required a good knowledge and explanation of youth court anonymity and the circumstances in which it can be lifted. It also focused on the protection, or lack of it, for defamatory remarks made outside court.

In terms of the newspaper practice questions there were, as with the law, some excellent answers given by candidates.

Future candidates should note that where a question poses a scenario and asks who would they contact to develop a story, the best answers indicate a list of contacts and what they would be asked. This gives examiners a clear picture of how the candidate would develop the story.

Candidates should also not assume that examiners will assume that they will do the obvious.

So, for example, in the question about the 94-year-old running 10k to raise money for people with dementia, a number of candidates neglected to interview the 94-year-old until very late in their answer, if at all. Any sensible answer would have pointed out that he would have been the first person to have been interviewed.

All in all though, a very encouraging performance in this NCE. The examiners congratulate all those who have passed and hope these remarks will be of use to future candidates.

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