Scenarios

Test your editorial awareness with our news scenarios, which are all based on real situations faced by journalists.

Interviewing integrity – scenario

Scenario: Conflict of interests

Right of reply – scenario

When should journalists offer a right of reply? All the time, sometimes, never? Try our ethical scenario and add your comments.

Privacy protection – scenario

You are working on the online news desk of a large media organisation. News breaks of fighting overseas. Raw footage arrives showing identifiable dead bodies. What do you do?

Trespass and journalism – scenario

In this scenario we look at a situation where a journalist is faced with breaking the law in order to gather essential information for informing the public debate.

Scenario: Conflict of interests

In this scenario you are a political correspondent working for a national public service broadcaster. A lobbying company offers you a significant amount of money to train lobbyists in how to influence the media. What do you do?

Emotional pressure – scenario

How should a reporter respond when someone uses emotional pressure and threats to try to stop them doing their job?

Withholding information – scenario

In this scenario a journalist comes across information that changes the focus of a story the editor had asked them to write. Should they include it or withhold it.

Journalistic ethics – scenario

In this scenario a reporter feels ethically compromised after accepting hospitality from a developer who subsequently pressured them for favourable coverage.

Editorial impartiality – scenario

In this scenario a reporter covering a story about medical malpractice in a hospital discovers that the consultant involved is a relative. What should they do?