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Newspaper Practice – 209 candidates; 112 passed – 54 per cent

Candidates’ answers to questions in the newspaper practice section of theautumn NCE suggest that there are many editors who have cause for seriousconcern.

Many candidates demonstrated that they could not safely deal with atelephone complaint from a solicitor, should they be unfortunate enough tobe the most senior person present in the office.

Others explained why they would not follow up important relevant lines ofinquiries because of an inflated fear of breaching imaginary restrictionsimposed by either the Code of Practice or rights to privacy under Article 8of the European Convention on Human Rights.

While it would appear that candidates were aware of legislation (such asthe Human Rights Act and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act) therewere serious misunderstandings – not least being that neither Act wasdirectly relevant to any question posed.

This was not a difficult paper. It gave candidates an opportunity todemonstrate knowledge and capabilities expected of a senior reporter. It wasa challenge too strong for more than half the candidates. Fifty-nine percent failed to pass the paper though the published pass rate for thissection will be inflated by a number of borderline level candidates whopassed the NCE overall as a result of high marks elsewhere.

Candidates were required to tackle either question one or two.

In question one markers were amazed at the number of candidates preparedto argue with a complaining solicitor that their by-lined report neitherdefamed nor prejudiced the trial of his client. In several cases candidatesdidn’t even take the precaution of ensuring they introduced the words”without prejudice” to keep the conversation off the record!

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