CBC Professional Ethics & Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A broadcast captioner receives a call to cover a live news segment on a topic outside their expertise. What is the most ethical course of action?
- Accept and caption to the best of their ability without disclosure
- Decline without explanation to avoid embarrassment
- Accept but notify the client of potential accuracy limitations in that domain (Correct answer)
- Caption the segment and fill in unfamiliar terms with phonetic approximations without flagging them
Correct answer: Accept but notify the client of potential accuracy limitations in that domain
Ethical practice requires transparency with clients about potential limitations so they can make informed decisions about coverage.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes the CBC's stance on captioner impartiality during politically charged broadcasts?
- Captioners may omit inflammatory statements to reduce harm
- Captioners must render all spoken content accurately regardless of personal views (Correct answer)
- Captioners should paraphrase controversial statements to reduce legal risk
- Captioners may skip content they find offensive
Correct answer: Captioners must render all spoken content accurately regardless of personal views
Impartiality requires accurate verbatim captioning of all spoken content, regardless of the captioner's personal or political views.
Question 3: When a captioner discovers they made a significant error during a live broadcast, what is the appropriate post-broadcast action?
- Say nothing to avoid disciplinary action
- Inform the client and document the error in a professional incident log (Correct answer)
- Blame technical equipment to protect their reputation
- Delete any records related to the broadcast
Correct answer: Inform the client and document the error in a professional incident log
Transparency and documentation of errors are hallmarks of professional accountability in broadcast captioning.
Question 4: A CBC-certified captioner is asked to caption content that contains hate speech. Under professional ethics guidelines, they should:
- Refuse the assignment entirely without notice
- Caption accurately but may note their discomfort to the client after the broadcast (Correct answer)
- Substitute neutral language for the hateful terms
- Stop mid-broadcast and leave
Correct answer: Caption accurately but may note their discomfort to the client after the broadcast
Professional standards require accurate captioning of all content; concerns may be communicated to the client outside of the live session.
Question 5: Which behavior would most directly violate the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics for captioners?
- Taking a break between assignments
- Discussing confidential client broadcast content on social media (Correct answer)
- Using real-time correction software
- Requesting a higher rate for after-hours work
Correct answer: Discussing confidential client broadcast content on social media
Disclosing confidential client information publicly is a clear breach of the confidentiality requirement in the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics.
Question 6: A captioner is asked by a producer to intentionally omit a guest's verbal stumble during a live broadcast. The captioner should:
- Comply because the producer is the client
- Omit the stumble to protect the guest's dignity
- Caption the stumble accurately as spoken (Correct answer)
- Ask the guest's permission before captioning it
Correct answer: Caption the stumble accurately as spoken
Accurate, verbatim captioning is required regardless of producer preferences, as omissions alter the record of what was said.
Question 7: How should a CBC-certified captioner handle a situation where they are asked to caption a broadcast in a second language they only partially understand?
- Proceed and use context clues to fill in gaps
- Accept only if compensated at a higher rate
- Decline and refer the client to a qualified bilingual captioner (Correct answer)
- Caption only the portions they understand
Correct answer: Decline and refer the client to a qualified bilingual captioner
Accepting work beyond one's competence level violates professional ethics; the correct action is to refer the client to a qualified professional.
CBC Professional Ethics & Standards 2
A broadcast captioner receives a call to cover a live news segment on a topic outside their expertise.
What is the most ethical course of action?