A shake-up of preliminary law exams for students under the National Council for the Training of Journalists will come into effect from September, with a more demanding set of papers.

The changes will be discussed at a law seminar, with the Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf the guest speaker.

The NCTJ’s law examination board will explain its policy on the course and exam changes, in the light of new laws, at the event on July 4.

They will also spell out why it is important to train junior journalists to challenge court decisions.

The changes mean that the two exam papers that candidates sit will each be two hours and raised to 200 marks instead of the current 150.

The format will see court reporting covered in paper one, and general reporting in paper two.

Court reporting will include relevant aspects of defamation (absolute and qualified privilege) and contempt, sources of law, crime terminology and relevant aspects of the PCC code of practice.

General reporting will look at defamation and contempt of court, copyright, confidentiality, election law and other parts of the PCC code of practice not covered in paper one.

The NCTJ examinations board believe the changes to the examinations will help lecturers, and that the changed part two will assist candidates not involved in the NCTJ main training scheme who need a qualification in libel and contempt but do not go to court.

In addition, the new exams will be based on the new edition of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists, due for publication this summer.