Media Freedom in an African State: Nigerian Law in Its Historical and Constitutional Context.

Freedom of the media, a subject of wide-ranging current international debate, is of vital contemporary importance in developed and developing countries alike. International and national guarantees of media freedom illustrate the increasing recognition of its importance; but demonstrate also the difficulty of balancing media freedom against competing interests. Nigeria, arguably the most influential of the new African states, is a richly revealing subject for the study of media freedom, for it combines a legacy of English colonial law with the recent adoption (in 1979) of a constitution loosely patterned on that of the United States of America: and which accords continued recognition to guarantees of fundamental rights (including freedom of expression) which were originally introduced before Nigerian independence (in 1960) and which served thereafter as a model for similar guarantees adopted by many of the new states of the Commonwealth. The thesis provides a brief overview of the laws which govern the media in Nigeria, and then examines selected rules in their constitutional context, considers their defects and analyses the extent to which they impose unjustifiable restrictions on freedom of the media. Recommendations are made for the reform of the law: in some cases, but certainly not all, by following English developments and - more generally - by adopting the approach taken in the United States of America to analogous problems of media freedom. The laws examined are those governing media licensing and regulation; sedition; defamation (civil and criminal); and contempt of court (especially the sub judice rule, publications 'scandalising' the court, the reporting of judicial proceedings by the media and the obligation of journalists to disclose the identity of their sources). Within each topic, the relevant Nigerian rules are described (with reference to both legislation and case law), important developments in the United Kingdom are analysed, and the approach of the United States of America to these questions is contrasted. In conclusion, it is submitted that Nigeria should adopt the various reforms suggested: and the significance of such development for other Commonwealth countries (with similar laws governing media freedom) is considered

Salt intake assessed by 24 h urinary sodium excretion in a random and opportunistic sample in Australia

The gold standard method for measuring population sodium intake is based on a 24 h urine collection carried out in a random population sample. However, because participant burden is high, response rates are typically low with less than one in four agreeing to provide specimens. At this low level of response it is possible that simply asking for volunteers would produce the same results

The association of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to salt with 24-hour urinary sodium excretion

Salt reduction efforts usually have a strong focus on consumer education. Understanding the association between salt consumption levels and knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards salt should provide insight into the likely effectiveness of education-based programs

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely