Everything happens for a reason. Really?

It’s time for Justina’s night time reflections.

Whenever something happens, no matter whether it is a good or a bad thing (usually it is a bad thing) my parents always say ‘No worries, everything happens for a reason’, which lights up hope for oncoming things to get better in the future. It is nice to believe that whatever happens, life still holds in store some other, interesting opportunities. Is it true that everything has its reason to happen, though? It has never been proven, but at the same time I guess it feels like a great idea for a good, positive excuse for things that go wrong in life. I feel that it actually can be argued to be true; sometimes it seems like some situations have their own reason to be happening in our life.

Sometimes seeing a person for the first time in your life makes you feel like you are already ‘bonded’ with them. You don’t quite yet know who they are, but you know that you were meant to meet them, and you know that they will affect your life in some way. Maybe they will give you a little help? Teach you a lesson? Keep you going when everything turns against you? It definitely happened to me, at least once.

Of course, bad experiences are just as important as good ones. Making mistakes is the best way of gaining new experiences and even knowledge, which can be seen as an advantage. Well, maybe not in journalism. Making errors in journalism is bad! Bad, bad, bad! Let’s try not to make any of those. At the end of the day, the successes and downfalls create who you are and how you are seen.



How about war? What is the reason of war? So many people died and still die in the brutal Iraq war. I do disagree with the statement in this case. Very, very, very much! It would stupid to think that the reason for it could be that people will find a ‘real purpose of life’ when it finally finishes, if it ever will. People living there don’t even remember what peace means. All they get to see every day are men dressed in military uniforms, machine guns and some automatic weapons. All they feel is fear and all they have is hope which slowly wanes. War has no reason for giving so much pain to these innocent people. War has no reason to exist.

I am supposed to revise for my exams right now! Revising philosophy gives me too many thought in my head which then need to be typed down so they can stop playing on my mind, otherwise I will be getting distracted for the rest of the night.

I am relieved now. I shall go back to studying leaving you to express your thoughts :-)

Bye byee.

A Student Hero from Winchester University

A student has been hailed a hero after saving an 84 year old man from burning in a house fire that happened on Monday night.

A 20 year old Winchester University student- Edward Herbert, hurried to his neighbour's house across the road to get him out of the burning house after hearing a working smoke alarm.

The incident happened on Monday night, 7th December at 21:17, before Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Control Room operators received a 999 emergency call.

Edward climbed the ladder to get to the top floor of the house, as the man was at the upstairs window.

The ladder wasn't long enough so Edward only managed to get an old man's head out of the window and decided to wait until firefighters and police arrived to rescue the man, who was then taken to hospital by South Central Ambulance suffering from smoke inhalation.

The hero declared: 'I just wanted to get him out of the house.' This is a very brave move, especially that he was risking his own life. He also said: 'He fainted on me twice, that was really scary, I thought the worst.'

Luckily, a member of the ambulance crew took care of him administering oxygen.

Winchester Fire Station Watch Manager Chris Roper, said:

'The alarm was raised by neighbours who heard a smoke alarm sounding. The fire, which was in the ground floor kitchen of the property, is thought to have started due to an electrical fault. The occupier was upstairs in his bedroom at the time. Fortunately neighbours heard the alarm sounding and dialled 999."

Edward Herbert, who saved an elderly man, said: I am definitely going to see him in hospital, bring some flowers and make sure he is alright.'

The police informed that the man is fine and with his family in hospital.

Qualified privilege

The Galloway case:

The Daily Telegraph lost the case after making serious defamatory allegations against George Galloway, including elements of malice with no Justification, comment or QP. The reason for losing the case was that journalists failed the ’10 point test’, mainly because the paper did not put all its allegations to Galloway for him to deny before the information was published.

Qualified Privilege is a type of defense again libel taken in defamation actions. It is also available in situations where it is considered important that the facts should be known in the public interests. There are two types of QP: Statutory qualified privilege and Common Law qualified privilege.

Statutory qualified privilege can be used in certain circumstances, such as court reporting, public and council meetings reporting and reports of police statements. The published report has to be accurate, fair and free of malice. There is also a requirement for Statutory qualified privilege which states that the matter published must be a matter of public concern, the publication of which is for the public benefit.

However, Privilege at common law can be applied in situations where the law protects defamatory statements that are untrue, for the convenience of the public. For example, it applies when a person makes a defamatory statement in the performance of legal, moral, or social duty to a person who has corresponding duty or interest in receiving it.

10 point test is another way of defence:

1.The case has to be serious- the more serious allegation, the more protection will be applied.
2.The nature of information
3.The source of information
4.The status of information
5.Evidence is essential
6.The urgency of the matter
7.A comment from the claimant is needed
8.The tone of the article- it has to be written in a balanced language
9.It has be to published immediately
10.A claimant has to have a chance to deny it.

Defamation

Law exists to protect the moral and professional reputation of the individual from unfair attack. My understanding of Defamation is legal declare for false statements of published facts about a person, which lover their reputation or make people think less of somebody without justification.

The following examples show how reputation can be lowered and therefore, when a statement becomes defamatory

•Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt
•Causes them to be shunned or avoided
•Discredits them in their trade, business or profession
•Generally lowers them in the eyes of right-thinking members of society

The statement, however, can be protected by defence in libel law.

A statement to be Libel it has to include:
Defamatory,
An identified person who has been defamed
Publication to a third party.
It is quite similar to Slander, which is the type of defamation with no permanent record. Normally it's a spoken statement. It requires defamation and identification but NO publication to a third party. For example, it can be seen as a form of conversation.

The main defences:
•Justification- It must be true and it needs to be proved- then it can be seen as complete defence.
•Fair comment- it has to be an honest opinion based on fact. No malice should be included.
•Qualified Privilege- which is a specific protection against an action of defamation given in the first place to judges, lawyers, and witnesses in court cases.

Hospital Takes Action To Help Keep Viral Outbreak Contained

St Mary’s hospital has halted temporarily due to stomach flu outbreak affecting the hospital.

An increase in the number of cases of stomach flu being brought into the hospital from the community have made the hospital staff take the decision to postpone all planned non-urgent inpatient admissions for routine surgery, however clinically urgent surgery e.g. cancer and emergencies will continue as normal.

Due to trying to minimize the spread of infection, visiting times have been restricted and now essential visits can take place between the hours of 2-3pm and 7-8pm.

Therefore families and friends of patients are asked not to visit, if they have been unwell with either diarrhoea or vomiting in the past 48 hours due to the risk of passing an infection on to other people, until further notice.

Suspicious series of flashing incidents.

City dwellers in Sholing experienced a series of indecent exposures in the city, which took place between August 28 and November 11.

The police are still trying to investigate the suspicious cases that have been confirmed in at least four places and a man that has been seen by the public and who is also suspected to be involved in all of them.

The man who has been usually seen by mid aged women, was described as white in his late teens or early 20s of slim build and with brown hair.

All the cases happened during the daytime, when adults and children usually head off to get home after work and school, which suggests that the police don’t seem to be very responsive if the cases still happened after receiving 2 or 3 reports in different periods of time.

The first happened around 3.20pm on August 28 in Sholing valley off Anson Drive, when a 23-year old woman, who went for an afternoon walk to the park with her dog experienced a view of a man sat on a bench, exposing himself while staring at her for sometime.

Similar cases happened again in September 9 and October 31, when two mid-aged women saw a man mainly in the Sholing area, exposing himself.

The last reported incident happened on the Wednesday November 11 when a 14-year-old boy walking through Millers Pond saw a man naked from waist down committing an indecent act.

Police are now appealing for anyone with information about who the man maybe or who has been also flashed at to get in contact with them. They are asked to contact PC Rachel Gallimore at the Public Protection Unit at Shirley Police Station on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY –COPYRIGHT

Copyright protects intellectual property, which is a residual right that everyone has not to have their work stolen and exploited by others. This right is protected in the same way as any other right. It can be seen as implemented to protect the creator of an original work. Copyright prevents plagiarism and unfair exploitation of a person’s work and allows the creator to commercially exploit his/her work. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right in the UK to: make copies of the work; issue copies to the public; perform the work in public; broadcast the work on terrestrial and cable programmes; to adapt or translate the work.

Copyright states that everybody has a right to own their work; however, there is no copy right in ideas, news, facts, and information. It only applies to work that had been done.

If you write an article, or take a photograph you own the copyright to the work you have done. If someone buys a copy of your work, they can look at it or read it, but they cannot make copies of it. They can sell the copy they bought to another person, but they cannot legally sell copies they make.

Who owns the Copyright?

The very first owner of a copyright work created after 31 July 1989 is the author. However, in the case of work done in the course of employment- the employer is the owner.
The copy right can be assigned to the newspaper, or magazine but an assignment is not affective unless in writing signed in the copyright owner. The owner can license the publisher to use the work but if it is an exclusive licence this also must be in writing.