NEWSPAPER PRACTICE
– 223 candidates;
– 150 passed – 67 per cent

The examiners’ report:

The examiners were encouraged by the overall performance of candidates in this NCE newspaper practice paper. There were a good number of excellent individual answers on many papers and a few outstanding candidates who achieved very good marks on all three questions they attempted.

That said, the majority of passes seemed to involve a good law question followed by adequate newspaper practice answers. It is understandable given the weight of marks that candidates will devote a lot of effort to the law question, but to do themselves justice they must demonstrate to examiners their abilities as reporters as well as their knowledge of the law.

Part A – Law
Question 1

This is a classic situation confronted by reporters up and down the country every day – a police press conference. In such a conference material may be released which is both libellous and a contempt threat. Candidates were expected to identify these threats and the defences they might have against them.

Yet again, and despite warnings in previous examiners’ reports, some candidates were confused on the law here and claimed qualified privilege as a defence against contempt – it is not. The only protection a publisher has in this situation is the assurance given by the then Attorney General in 1980 that newspapers would not be prosecuted for this sort of article, and the fact that since that time no one has been prosecuted for such coverage.

Candidates were also expected to recognise that the information in the conference itself was defensible, but the tip-off from the detective was not.

There was an added issue of spent convictions.

The task faced therefore was to sift the information available to decide what was safely publishable and what should be treated with caution. The candidates who scored highest were those who were able to do this and show the examiners clearly what they would and would not use, and why.

Question 2

The issue in this question relied upon candidates recognising that the press conference held by the organisers of the demonstration was covered by qualified privilege.

However, material from the demonstration itself, including messages on the placards, was not covered by any such defence.

Candidates who fared well on this question demonstrated a clear knowledge of the defence of qualified privilege and the conditions placed on publishers wishing to claim it. Some candidates reached the conclusion that little if anything could be published at all. It would be a very unusual situation whereby the examiners for newspaper practice would set a question where a correct answer would be to publish nothing at all. Usually candidates are expected to make decisions as to what can be published and what cannot and to explain the reasons for that decision.

Part B – Newspaper Practice

Broadly, candidates did well in these questions when they showed examiners that, if confronted with such a scenario in the newsroom, they would have the resources to produce good useable copy for their publication.

This section simply requires candidates to write a list of who they would contact, why they would contact them and, importantly, what they would ask them.

This final point is worth remembering for those re-sitting the NCE or taking it for the first time.

The questions that would be asked of contacts are crucial to explaining to the examiners what sort of coverage the candidate would produce.

Furthermore, in some scenarios candidates forgot to point out that they would seek to contact the subject of the story for confirmation that it was true.

For some candidates time management becomes an issue in this section of the paper, having devoted too much time to the law question, and some answers were very brief.

Examiners credited these answers where they could, but it is difficult to award a full range of marks to answers where the candidate simply has not had time to flesh out their list of contacts and their ideas for tackling the scenario.

In general, the candidates who did best were, it is believed by the examiners, those who in their daily work in their newsrooms perform such tasks – being given a lead by their newsdesk and being asked to produce a useable story by use of contacts and other resources.

Conclusion

As stated previously, this newspaper practice exam produced some excellent work and the examiners congratulate those who passed. For those re-sitting or sitting the NCE for the first time, it is hoped the above remarks will be of some guidance.

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