Reduce The Incidence Perioperative Hypothermia Health And Social Care Essay

Reduce The Incidence Perioperative Hypothermia Health And Social Care Essay A Summary of fewer than 150 words should state the purpose of the study or investigation, basic procedures, main findings (giving actual results not just a broad description) and their statistical significance (using actual p values), and principal conclusions. The Summary should not be structured nor in note or abbreviated form. It should not state that the results are discussed or that work is presented. Abbreviations should not be used except for units of measurement. Use the same order when discussing the methods and results as in the main body of the text, and always mention the groups in the same order. Introduction: Perioperative hypothermia, defined as a core temperature below 36 °C, is still one of the most common side effects of general anaesthesia (1, 12) and results from low preoperative core temperatures (19), anaesthetic-induced inhibition of thermoregulatory defenses with redistribution of heat after induction of anaesthesia combined with a cold surgical environment, administration of unwarmed intravenous fluids, and evaporation from surgical incisions (25). Several prospective, randomized trials and retrospective studies have shown that perioperative hypothermia is associated with numerous adverse effects and outcomes (24). Following head and neck surgery perioperative hypothermia can cause delayed extubation, the development of early perioperative wound complications e.g. neck seromas, and flap dehiscence (2, 26). Although the authors of these studies recommend active warming for patients at risk for intraoperative hypothermia (2, 26) most patients are not actively warmed during head and neck surgery. The purpose of this prospective, randomized, controlled study was to test the hypothesis that the use of a new conductive warming system (PerfecTempà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, The Laryngeal Mask Company Limited, St. Helier, Jersey) in combination with insulation is superior to reduce the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative hypothermia during head and neck surgery compared to insulation only. Methods: After approval of the protocol by our local hospital ethics committee, 40 patients were recruited. Written, informed consent was obtained from all patients on the day prior to anaesthesia and surgery. All patients in the study were required to be adults between 18 and 75 yrs, to have American Society of Anesthesiology physical status I-III and to undergo elective, head or neck surgery that was scheduled to last between 90 min and 180 min. The exclusion criteria were: age > 75 yr; body mass index 30 kg/m ²; preoperative temperature > 38 °C or 180 min. All patients were premedicated with 7.5 mg oral midazolam. General anaesthesia was induced with propofol (2 to 2.5 mg per kg of body weight) and remifentanil (0.2-0.5 µg/kg) followed by rocuronium (0.4-0.6 mg/kg) to facilitate tracheal intubation. Anaesthesia was maintained with infusions of remifentanil and propofol titrated to maintain adequate anaesthetic depth and hemodynamic stability. The ambient temperature of the O.R. was 19 °C. Sublingual temperatures were measured preoperatively with an electronic thermometer (Geratherm rapid, Geratherm Medical AG, Geschwenda, Germany). During all measurements, sublingual placement and mouth closure was carried out by member of the study team (A.R.) experienced in the use of this device. Following induction, until the end of surgery, oesophageal temperatures were measured every 15 minutes using a temperature probe (TEMPRECISE #4-1512-A, Arizant International Corp. Eden Prairie, MN, USA) inserted 30 to 35 cm into the distal oesophageus. All patients were identified through the daily surgical schedule. A computer generated randomisation list with four blocks of ten patients was used to allocate patients to either the treatment group (conductive warming and insulation) or control group (insulation only). In the treatment group the patients were positioned supine on the conductive warming mattress (190.5 cm x 50.8 cm) (LMA PerfecTempà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, The Laryngeal Mask Company Limited, St. Helier, Jersey) placed on the operating table, as suggested by the manufacturer. Then the patients were immediately insulated with a standard hospital duvet (188 cm x 122 cm), filled with Trevira (100% polyester) (Brinkhaus GmbH Co. KG, Warendorf, Germany) with an insulation value of 1.29 clo (6). The conductive patient warming system was set to a temperature of 40.5 °C throughout the study and warming was stopped when the oesophageal temperature was > 37.5 °C. Patients of the control group were positioned supine on the operating table and were immediately insulated with the standard hospital duvet. All intravenous fluids were infused at room temperature. The duration of anaesthesia and surgery (time from skin incision to last suture) were recorded. Power analysis, assuming a clinically important reduction in the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative hypothermia from 50 % to 90% suggested that eleven patients were required in each group (ÃŽÂ ± = 0.05; ÃŽÂ ² = 0.2). To compensate for unexpected dropout of patients with a shorter or longer duration of surgery than planned the initial total number of recruited patients was increased to 20 patients in each group. Comparisons of nominal data were made using the Fishers exact test. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used prior to parametric testing to ascertain that values came from a Gaussian distribution. Comparisons of normally distributed data were made using the Students t-test. Comparisons of not normally distributed data were made using the Mann-Whitney-U test. Time-dependent changes of core temperature were evaluated using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Scheffà ©s test. Results are expressed as means  ± SD or as median and interquantil range as appropriate. A value for p Results A total of 86 patients were assessed for eligibility. 25 patients could not be asked to participate, because they came to the hospital on the day of the operation. 21 patients refused to participate. Of the 40 patients recruited, 10 patients had to be excluded because of an operating time below 60 minutes (five patients in the treatment and four in the control group) or above 180 minutes (one patient). Figure 1: Flow diagram of the study In three patients the conductive warming mattress did not fully heat up to 40.5 °C for unknown technical reasons. These patients were still included in the data analyses. Data were therefore complete for 15 patients in each group. Patient characteristics, ambient temperature of the O.R., core temperatures before induction of anaesthesia and duration of surgery were not different (table 1). Table 1 Patient characteristics and perioperative variables. Values are presented as mean values  ± SD, median and interquantil range [IQR] or numbers of patients. Variable Treatment group (n = 15) Control group (n = 15) P-value Age [yr] 51 ±18 51 ±15 0.99 Sex [m/f] 7/8 10/5 0.46 Height [cm] 173 ±11 175 ±10 0.64 Weight [kg] 74 ±16 80 ±9 0.21 Temperature of the O.R [ °C] 19 ±1 19 ±1 0.3 Core temperature before induction of anaesthesia [ °C] 36.1 ±0.4 35.9 ±0.5 0.33 Duration from positioning on the conductive warming mattress to induction of anaesthesia [min] 7 [IQR: 5-9] Duration of anaesthesia [min] 118 ±28 122 ±38 0.74 Duration of surgery [min] 97 ±25 103 ±37 0.61 The ANOVA identified a significantly higher core temperature in the treatment group at 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 and 120 min (Figure 2). Further testing was futile as there were only three patients with a longer duration of surgery included. Figure 2 Mean pre- and intraoperative temperatures of the treatment group and control group. Error bars represent SD. In each group data were complete for at least sixty minutes. Furthermore, Fisherss exact test confirmed a lower incidence of intraoperative (3 vs. 9 patients; p = 0.03) and postoperative hypothermia (0 vs. 6 patients; p = 0.008) in the treatment group. However, the mean duration of hypothermia was not significantly shorter in the treatment group (55 ±17 min vs. 80 ±51 min; p = 0.42). No adverse effects could be observed. Discussion: This prospective, randomized, controlled study demonstrates that, during head and neck surgery under general anaesthesia, a conductive warming mattress combined with insulation significantly reduces the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative hypothermia compared to insulation only. With this approach the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative hypothermia could be reduced significantly. However, the mean intraoperative duration of mild hypothermia could not be reduced significantly. Redistribution of body heat from the core to the periphery was unusually small in this study and similar in both groups as core temperature decreased only 0.1 °C in the control group and 0.2 °C in the study group. In most clinical studies redistribution of heat after induction of anaesthesia leads to a reduction in core temperature of about 0.3 °C to 0.8  °C (3, 4, 8, 28) in the first hour whereas under experimental conditions it can reach up to 1.7 °C (17). This small decrease in core temperature may be explained by the fact that patients were kept comfortably warm during the whole preoperative period (ward, transport to the O.R. and induction of anaesthesia) with the same good insulating hospital blanket as used intraoperatively. This approach refers to the recent NICE guideline Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. The management of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia in adults (22). Patients during head and neck surgery are often thought to have a relatively low risk for perioperative hypothermia because in most cases no body cavity is opened, the surgical incisions as well as blood losses are small. This is probably why there are almost no studies about perioperative hypothermia and its prevention during head and neck surgery. However, many patients undergoing head and neck surgery are prone to hypothermia by advanced age (2, 14, 27) and cancer with associated malnutrition and low body weight (2, 16). According to their preoperative risk profile (e.g. ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, preoperative radiotherapy, preoperative chemotherapy) (20, 26) they are often vulnerable to hypothermia associated complications. These complications include an increasing incidence of myocardial ischemia (10, 11, 11) which is also a relevant complication after reconstructive head and neck surgery (7), augmenting blood loss (23), dec reasing resistance to surgical wound infections or increasing local wound complications (2, 15, 18, 26), thus prolonging hospitalization. The few existing studies were particularly focused on longer operations like parotidectomies, neck dissections (2) and reconstructive surgery with free tissue or regional flaps (13, 26). In the study of Agrawal et al. (2) the incidence of perioperative hypothermia was 65% in the unwarmed group showing clearly the high risk of perioperative hypothermia in patients during head and neck surgery. In our study with relatively short operations we observed an incidence of perioperative hypothermia of 40% in the control group. In contrast to the study of Agrawal et al. (2) we used a high insulation of 1.29 clo for these patients which is much more than the insulation value of most commercially available materials designed for use in the operating room. With this insulation heat losses from the covered skin can be reduced about 70%. (6). In most of our patients this insulation was able to maintain a stable thermal steady state with a relative constant core temperature. However, this thermal s teady state was at a core temperature of about 36.0 °C with many patients being hypothermic. In general the efficacy of posterior patient-warming systems is limited (5, 9, 13, 21). These devices have the disadvantage that warming the back of the patient in the supine position is suboptimal. During surgery, little heat is lost from the back (9) and heat gain via the back is also limited, resulting in a small change in heat balance. However, in this special setting the additional heat generated by the conductive warming system leads to a positive thermal balance and an increasing core temperature after 30 minutes. In contrast to conventional circulating water mattresses the new conductive system is made of thick viscoelastic foam. This material enhances contact between the mattress and the back, thereby reducing thermal contact resistance and increasing the efficacy of heat exchange. In contrast to forced-air warming the combination of good insulation and conductive warming has several advantages. There are no expensive disposables elements, low costs for maintenance, low power consumption and no relevant noise emission (28). Another advantage is that is very easy to use the system for prewarming as soon as the patient can be placed on the operating table when the controller unit is mounted at the operating table. Our study has several limitations. First, two different anatomic locations were used to measure core temperature (oral temperature before induction of anaesthesia and oesophageal during general anaesthesia). However, both methods are reasonable methods for core temperature measurements and we could record the first reliable oesophageal temperature 5 minutes after induction of anaesthesia so that this temperature can serve as a reliable starting temperature. Second, five patients per group had to be excluded from data analyses because the operation time was shorter or longer than planned. Nevertheless, we had to exclude these patients because it is not advisable to compare operations with durations of 30 minutes with operations of more than 3 hours. Finally we did not fully take advantage of the possibility to prewarm our patients with the conductive system. On average time from the beginning of warming to induction of anaesthesia was only seven minutes. It seems to be likely that longer prewarming periods would enhance the efficacy of the conductive warming mattress. Conclusion The combination of good thermal insulation and conductive warming is effective to prevent perioperative hypothermia during head and neck surgery. In contrast to other warming methods there are no expensive disposables, low costs for maintenance, low power consumption and no relevant noise emssion.

Television and Media - America Needs TV Advertising :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

America Needs TV Advertising Television would not be in the place it is today had it not been for commercials. Commercials not only provide a much needed break from the shows we watch, but also gives paying advertisers a chance to promote their products. With a large audience watching, businesses spend untold amounts of money to make sure their commercials are the best. The worst nightmare however for an company is for a couch potato to not look at their commercial, but instead change the channel. To remedy this advertisers strive to capture the attention of the audience as soon as possible. If the audience does not like what they see within the first ten to fifteen seconds then most likely they will change the channel. Miller Lite "Miller Time" commercials counteract this ingeniously. The distinctive opening music create a light and humorous mood and instills curiosity in the viewer about what will happen next. The offbeat and sometimes absurd characters give the audience a well deserved laugh. For example, a man obviously dressed up as a beaver gnaws a log cabin, and then everything wooden and goes after a man holding a Miller Lite beer can. One does not think too much about the ad (for if one did he would wonder why do these commercials sometimes have nothing to do with their product?) but instead gets caught up in the comedy. The humor in these ads immediately captures their audience immediately and leaves them with a smile on their faces. Feeling good is also what makes Burger King's commercials so attractive. The typical Burger King commercial features 60's or 70's dance music accompanied by various shots of burgers. The music, if the audience likes it, pulls them in, watching it sometimes simply for the music. That is most often the case with my brother who "shakes his groove thing" to the music while not fully realizing that the thing which motivates him is simply inanimate and unhealthy food. The implicit message the advertisers send it seems, is that if you are dancing in your seat at home, how more will you love them in person? Attraction comes in the form of nostalgia, a more subtle and hence less used part of advertising. Chili's commercials with singing tamales on an open frontier uses music like the Burger King ads but creates a mood of nostalgia rather than one of excitement.

Technology and Climate in Iraq Essay -- Iraq Environment Technological

Technology and Climate in Iraq Since civilization was born in ancient Mesopotamia thousands of years ago, technology has been a driving factor in the growth and progress of the peoples of this region. Many of the new and changing technologies have been closely connected to the weather and climate of this unique part of the world. In my opinion, the three most important technological developments for Mesopotamia and Iraq over time have been irrigation, shelter and architecture, and the use of oil. Before we can make these connections between technology and the climate of Iraq, we must look at what makes this climate unique from others around the world. Iraq’s climate is classified as sub-desert and this gives the region two distinct seasons. First, the summers (May-October) in Iraq are hot, with temperatures often exceeding 120 ° F.1 Another important characteristic of the sub-desert summers is the lack of rainfall, since summer precipitation rarely climbs above one inch. On the contrary, the winter season normally has up to 10 inches of rainfall and milder, often cold temperatures. Those 10 inches of rain come in strong storms that can often lead to floods since the land is not prepared for large amounts of precipitation.2 Winter temperatures sometimes even drop to around freezing and frosts are not uncommon. Both of these distinct seasons have caused technological developments over the past 7000 years. As I wrote in my think piece, Mesopotamia is considered to be the birthplace of civilization and this development was fueled by technology. The invention of irrigation techniques around 5000 BC in the region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers was the foundation for the development of the first towns and cities. Irrig... ...s: Monroe, ME. â€Å"Fossils into Fuel† http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/fossils/p3.html Lamb, H.H. (1995) Climate, History, and the Modern World. Routledge Press: New York, NY Pollock, Susan. (1999) Ancient Mesopotamia. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY Roux, Georges. (1985). Ancient Iraq. Penguin Books: New York, NY â€Å"The Architecture of Irak: The Lost Art of Clay Construction† http://www.brainworker.ch/Irak/architecture.htm â€Å"The Iraqi Republic† http://i-cias.com/e.o/iraq.htm â€Å"Transportation in Iraq† http://united-states.asinah.net/american-encyclopedia/wikipedia/t/tr/transportation_in_iraq.html 1 Pollock, Susan Ancient Mesopotamia 2 Roux, Georges Ancient Iraq 3 Pollock 4 Lamb, H.H. Climate, History, and the Modern World 5 â€Å"The Architecture of Irak† 6 Everest, Larry Oil, Power, and Empire 7 â€Å"Fossils into Fuel†

Counselor Confidentiality and Disclosure

The counseling process consists primarily of self-disclosure and self-confrontation on the part of the client, facilitated by interaction with the counselor. In order for counseling to take place, the client must disclose personal material to the counselor, who in turn tries to understand the client’s world in a context of what he or she knows about how people respond to life situations. Counselors are aware of their influential positions with respect to clients, and they avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of clients.Everyone has a primary obligation to maintain the privacy of both current and former clients, whether living or deceased, and to maintain the confidentiality of material that has been transmitted to them in any of their professional roles. Reasonable differences of opinion can and do exist among counselors with respect to the ways in which values, ethical principles, and ethical standards should be rank ordered when they conflict.Ethical decision making in a given situation must apply the informed judgment of the individual counselor and should also consider how the issues would be judged in a peer review process where the ethical standards of the profession would be applied. This paper adopts the main thesis that the clients’ confidentiality ranks number one in this ethical issue. By developing an oath of confidentiality, ethical considerations are not relegated to a secondary status, after business matters nor are they noted as afterthoughts.Without a clear directive, ethical oversight of the actions chosen through the strategic planning process lack this input. Counseling Values Values are enduring. They motivate behavior. Judgments about right and wrong or good and bad are moral judgments based on values. In the course of human interactions, there are many situations in which it is difficult to make a decision because values come into conflict. Values must be clarified if moral decisions are to be reached.These values are e asily seen during the counseling activity. While clients may reveal significant personal materials in their non-verbal behavior, the primary medium for counseling communication is verbal. Clients reveal their thoughts and feelings to a perceptive counselor by what they say, the affect with which they say it and by what they choose to obscure in their verbal material. The more fully self-disclosure takes place, the more fully the counselor can serve to help the client discover new ways of coping.Ethical practice may be defined as providing a helping service, for which one has been appropriately trained, with care and conscientious effort, Unethical practice occurs under three conditions: when the professional helper becomes involved with clients whose problems are beyond the scope of his or training; when the helper exploits his or her position to collect fees or salary for incompetent service; and when the helper fails to understand his or her obligation to respect a client’s rights to privacy and to free choice. It is fundamental for counselors to provide competent counseling service to clients.It is this trust that allows the client to share his or her personal concerns in a way that goes beyond casual conversation and which makes effective helping possible. As with all professions, it is a violation of trust to offer a service wherein one is incompetent to deliver or to exploit the public by offering less than the service one knows the children need. Some of the more practical solutions in maintaining confidentiality of the client’s background by the counselor are the following: I. ) Limiting Personal Information from Client’s FilesRespecting a client’s rights to privacy includes the maintenance of a confidential relationship within which the client is free to reveal important personal information as he or she is ready to do so. The client who hears his or her private thoughts revealed to another by his or her counselor has been betrayed, unless the nature of the words suggests a credible threat to life or limb. A child or the parents who is manipulated by a counselor to reveal information he or she is not yet ready to reveal has also been the victim of an invasion of privacy.The line between facilitative leading by the counselor and prying into personal matters can be a fine one, and the distinction is often in terms of timelines and context. Respecting a client’s right to choose freely is also troublesome to some counselors. If one begins with the assumption that rational persons will ultimately arrive at the same set of conclusions about a given problem or circumstance, it is easy to conclude that the client who does not arrive at an answer that the counselor values is thinking irrationally.At times that may be true, and the disagreement serves as evidence that help has not yet been carried to an appropriate termination. In other instances, the disagreement may signify that the client has values t hat differ from the counselor’s own set of values, and perhaps from those of the society at large. In such instances, the counselor can help the client to understand the logical consequences of the view he holds to be certain. In the case of information that is readily available, there must also be a limit to the information about the client that would be made available to counselors.There is a need to enforce an oath of confidentiality. At the Children’s Aid Society in Canada, there is not always a committee to decide on matters regarding ethics. Therefore, the middle ground approach must be taken. This involves the requirement that a counselor signs an oath of confidentiality. The organization’s philosophy statement may not be specific enough to guide the day-to-day making processes. The use of a combined mission-philosophy statement can lead to this problem. Alternatively, a written oath of confidentiality could be very specific but cover a limited scope of p otential circumstances.Indeed, every profession consists of human beings or individuals with objectives or goals for the attainment of specific purposes. These purposes may either be personal, profit oriented, or imbued with some public interest. In the attainment of every profession’s objectives, certain standards are observed, to ensure that the individuals play fairly and act with honest and sound independent judgment. Standards are also observed to make sure that the people within a profession observe proper ethics in terms of behavior, both in doing their work and in dealing with other people, in the course of the performance of their job.However, despite the rigid standards, set by law or regulations of the organizations where these professions are practiced, certain unethical behaviors are shown by various counselors. In an article entitled Clergy’s Image Recovering since Scandals, published last December 4, 2003, a survey reveals that in 23 different profession s, the nurses were ranked high or very high as to honesty and ethical standards. Doctors, veterinarians and pharmacists were next to the nurses, in said order, as the professionals who exemplified ethical behavior in the practice of profession.Those who were ranked lowest were the car salesmen, HMO managers insurance salesmen and advertising practitioners. The members of the clergy ranked higher than the previous years, but still behind policemen and engineers, though ahead of psychiatrists and bankers. What could be the reason behind the results of the surveys? It is the type of ethical or unethical behavior, which the professionals exemplify in their practice that leads to the results of the surveys (Denenberg, T. et al. ). Problem-solving processAs the conditions for therapy are established, a cooperative problem-solving process is conducted which results in more self-enhancing attitudes and behavior patterns and the development of the basic social competencies needed to build an d maintain cooperative relationships (Johnson and Matross, 1977). Objectivity refers to one’s ability to assess a situation based on its own merit and not based on personal biases or other influences external to the situation. Thinking and acting objectively pose challenges because preconceived notions influence a person’s judgment.In addition, humans are more emotional than they are rational in acting upon any given situation. All the more, a balanced outlook of confidentiality needs to be done by the counselor. What is confidentiality? Confidentiality involves the protection of sensitive information given by one person to another. It is based upon mutual trust between the giver and receiver of information. Protecting information about a person is important because its disclosure can make that person vulnerable.Because of this sensitive responsibility on the part of counselors, they must make sure that sensitive data is not recklessly divulge unless the patient allows the disclosure or if there is a need that this data be revealed for the benefit of the client (Code of Ethics). Accountability means being answerable to consequences of one’s action or inaction. This is not limited to big responsibilities but a daily occurrence that happens in day-to-day situations whenever one is given duties to perform. Counselors must take this view as they undertake counseling sessions, whether menial or complicated.These tasks are important components of a larger process. Counselors must take ownership of what they do and do not pass on to others this relevant but confidential information (Code of Ethics). Empowerment in counseling situations Empowerment, as a counseling concept, is considered an important tool to make an individual or group adapt to social change. It involves the principles of interaction with people and their right to self-determination. Empowerment requires that helper identify an individual’s strengths, share power and contro l with him, and motivate him to learn and to participate in a group.Both the counselor and the client must work together by allowing each other to contribute to the counseling process. Empowerment means acknowledging an individual’s capacity to face his problems and to make decisions on his own. The counselor’s role is to help an individual identify his strengths that he can use to help himself and make him feel that he is in control. Counselors also need to be of their clients (Empowerment). Empowered individuals can stand and decide on their own even after the supervision of the counselor is done.Empowerment is real because an individual draws his strength from within him, his uniqueness, his personal experiences, his values and beliefs. Counseling is not comparable to charity because of the concept of empowerment. Counseling does not only feed an individual but empowers him so that he may be able to feed himself. Purposes of Helping Most adult clients are self-refer red, that is, they arrive at the helper’s office with the hope that they may somehow improve their lives through involving themselves in counseling.More often than not, they have tried to sort out why they do not feel satisfied with their lives, but they have found themselves unable to control those things that create distress for them. Schlossberg (1976) stated succinctly that the purpose of counseling with adults is to return to them the locus of control over their own lives. It is true, of course, that many clients arrive at the counselor’s office convinced that their lives will be improved only if significant others or specific sets of circumstances are changed.It is important to remember that it is the client himself or herself who must change if counseling is to succeed. External circumstances may indeed be difficult, but if they are to change, it is most often the client who is in the best position to engender those changes. The adult who does not like his or he r job can decide how to improve it or how to seek a different job. The adult who is burdened with the care of an aging parent can seek help in bearing that burden. An adult who is angry at his or her children can learn to understand this anger and find more productive ways of accomplishing his or her goals with the children.A part of being in control involves not only being able to hold information in confidentiality but also in knowing what one wants and needs and being able to be satisfied with what one can reasonably attain. Being in control is being motivated by what is meaningful, not being driven toward undefined goals. Interactive Process Counseling with any individual will involve an interactive process based on certain fundamental principles of counseling. The content of counseling with adults will differ in certain respects from the content of counseling with children or adolescents.The adult client has more experience and typically is in a life position where there is gre ater pressure to assume responsibility for decisions, actions and interpersonal behavior. He or she would also be more cautious about the information given out for fear of being judged. The interactive process with adults can be based on a genetic model of helping such as that of Egan (1975). His model for counseling includes three stages wherein the client is expected to begin with self-exploration, move to deeper levels of self-understanding, and finally to develop a plan of action.Emphasis in the helping process will be related to the client issues identified and classified in the diagnostic process. A client who is experiencing a concern that is primarily situational will move fairly rapidly through Stages I and Stages II and will devote the majority of counseling time to considering the workability of various alternative ways of coping with the situation. Counseling is usually short term. The client whose coping skills are adequate for normal living may still experience stagnat ion in his or her development.In that instance, counseling will focus very heavily on Stage II, so that reachable new goals may be identified, and Stages I and III serve their usual functions of getting the problem defined and the development of strategies for implementing the new goals. Trust in a counseling environment Trust is not given but earned. In recognition of this, I strive to be worthy of other people’s trust by behaving in a proper manner and exhibiting good conduct at all times. I try to honor my commitments at all times and refrain from making promises that I cannot actually deliver.Trustworthiness is consistent with the principles of social work. One of the core values of social work is integrity. Integrity lies in the ethical and responsible conduct of a social worker in dealing with clients and in representing his organization to society. Counseling is a professional undertaking that requires discipline and a broad understanding of human relations and social dynamics. Counselors must be passionate about helping others. Counselors find strength in the areas of problem solving and human relations. Precepts of the American Counseling Association (ACA)According to the American Counseling Association, counselors need to respect the right of the client to privacy. It is important that they do not indulge in unwarranted disclosures of confidential data. The Section B1 of this right to privacy states that the only exception is when there is danger posed in the life of the client such as information that confirms that a client has a communicable disease and thus, the information needs to be relayed to a third party, who because of his close relationship with the client, may be at risk of getting that disease. (ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, American Counseling Association).

Explain How Constructivist Theory Differs from Traditional Ideas About Teaching and Learning

Constructivist Theory is very similar to the traditional ideas about teaching. The teacher’s roles that are similar include specifying learning objectives, preparing learning activities, and designing assessments. The main difference between Constructivist Theory and the traditional roles of a teacher is â€Å"a shift in emphasis away from the teacher merely providing information and toward the teacher promoting the interaction that makes students’ thinking open and visible.The constructivist theory puts the opportunity for knowledge in the students’ hands more than in traditional ideas of teaching. The teacher acts as a guide for imaginative and exploratory thinking. I would use constructivism in my classroom. I will provide high quality representations. I will use examples that include all of the information necessary in order for the students to understand the topic. The first example that popped into my head was to bring in a cake for each group and to cut t he cake into different portions to help with fractions in math.I will also connect content to the real world. I will try my best to relate the content I am teaching to the students. I know for myself, when I can relate to the content that is being taught, it is more interesting to me and I am more likely to do well in that specific content area. I will promote high levels of interaction. Group work will definitely be present in my classroom. Something I learned from this section is that the Constructivist Theory can be used with all grades and with all ages.

ANG KONSEPTONG PAPEL Essay

Awareness of the Parents about the K to 12 Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but may also be autodidactic.[1] Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. 12-Year Basic Education Cycle Universal Kindergarten Madaris Education Technical-Vocational Education Every Child a Reader by Grade One Science and Math Proficiency GASTPE (Gov. Assistance to Student and Teachers to Private Education) Medium of Instruction Quality Textbooks Covenant with LGUs The Philippines is the only remaining country in Asia with a 10-year pre-university program. The majority who do not go to college are too young to enter the labor force. Thus, they would either be unemployed or be vulnerable to exploitative labor practices. Those who may be interested to set up businesses cannot legally enter into contracts. The few, (only 23%) who would proceed to tertiary education, usually have to undergo remedial and high school level classes in colleges and universities. Those who graduate (17%) may not be recognized as professionals abroad. The Washington Accord prescribes 12 years of basic education as an entry to recognition of engineering professionals. The Bologna Accord requires 12  years of education for university admission and practice of profession in European countries. We need to add two years to our basic education. Those who can afford pay up to fourteen years of schooling before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 12 years for our public school children to give them an even chance at succeeding.† -Pres. Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III Enhancement of the basic education curriculum is the central focus of K to 12. The enhanced curriculum will offer areas of specialization or electives such as science and technology, arts, sports, journalism, tech-voc, foreign language, entrepreneurship, and subjects for advanced placement.

Freedom of speech from the perspective of mass media, to what extend it has been practiced in Malaysia? Essay

Mass media are means of communications (as newspapers, radio, or television) that is designed to reach the mass of the people1. Besides playing the role to inform individual with news, the media together with a sound legal system and an independent judiciary is part of a triumvirate that is essential for a well-functioning democracy2. In a democratic system of government, mass media is performing a number of essential functions. First, they serve on information or surveillance function. Second, they serve an agenda-setting and interpretation function. Third, they help us to create and maintain connections with various groups in society. Fourth, they help us to socialize and to educate us. Fifth, they persuade us to buy certain items or accept certain ideas. Sixth, they entertain us. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak or think freely. We are now living a media culture and its influence is become very pervasive. The number of hours we spend on the media is mind-boggling. Although the freedom of the media should not be in toto, yet the degree of the freedom of the media will affect the function of the media. Citizens of countries that are democratic see media freedom as a right, not a privilege. Nevertheless, there is no mention of freedom of the press or freedom of the electronic media in our Constitution. However, freedom of media to exercise its role and functions in society has been enshrined as a fundamental human right by way of recognition for the right to freedom of speech, expression and opinion.3 Pre-independence In 1930-1940, there are nearly 80 newspaper and magazines published in the Malay State, such as Utusan Melayu, Saudara, Warta Malaya and Majlis. In Warta Malaya, it published article that talk about the social and economic problems faced by the Malay. However, it did not ask for the British to be chased out. The newspaper, Majlis, discussed the political issues. Majlis not only brings to the awakening and fights for Malays right, their office became the place for the nationalist to meet up and exchange their thoughts. In the newspapers Saudara, there was a column named ‘Persaudaraan Sahabat Pena’ where the Malay readers exchanged their point of view. British was worried on the development of this column and therefore took the step to overseen those who involved in the said column. In view of the number of publications that existed during the time and the situation whereby those newspapers are free to discussed any issues, and the fact that the newspapers has played a vital role in the movement towards independence, we can conclude that under the administration of British, the media was enjoying the freedom of speech. The law on the freedom of speech became clearer during the time prior to independence. Certain law has been introduced to the Malay State. One of the laws which governed the freedom of speech at that time was the Sedition Act 1948. Section 4 of the Act makes it an offence to make, prepare, or to conspire, to do a seditions act, to utter seditious words, and to propagate or import any seditious publications. Section 3 provides that a seditious tendency is one which tends to (a) bring hatred or contempt to the government or excite disaffection against any Ruler or government, (b) excite the countrymen to revolt, (c) bring into hatred or contempt or excites disaffection against administration of justice, (d) raise discontent or disaffection among the countrymen, or (e) promote feelings of ill-will and hostility amongst the inhabitants of the country. Besides, there were two ordinances specifically deal with the printed media at that time, i.e. Printing Press Act 1948 (Ord 12 of 1948) and Control of Imported Publications Act 1958 (Ord 14 of 1955). The former deal with the publisher in the Malay State while the later governing the printed material from other country. Those laws were limiting freedom of speech of the media at the British colonial the light of the freedom of speech only shine at the colonial since 1956, when an attempt to draft a Federal Constitution started. The recommendations were submitted by Reid Commission in 1956-1957 Reports. In the report, there were two paragraphs provides under the title ‘Fundamental Rights’ 161. A Federal Constitution defines and guarantees the right of the Federation and the states; it is usual and in our opinion right that it should also define and guarantee certain fundamental individual right which are generally regarded as essential conditions for a free and democratic way of life. The rights which are recommend should be defined and guaranteed are all firmly established now throughout Malaysia and it may seen unnecessary to give them special protection in the Constitution. But we found in certain quarters vague apprehension about the future. We believe such apprehensions to be unfound, but there can be no objection to guaranteeing these rights subject to limited exceptions in conditions of emergency and we recommend that this should be done†¦.. 162. our recommendations afford means of redress, readily available to any individual, against unlawful infringements of personal liberty in any of its aspects†¦ we further recommend (Art 10) that freedom of speech and expression should be guaranteed to all citizens subject to restrictions in the interest of security, public order or morality or in relation to incitement, defamation or contempt of court†¦ For the Malaysian citizen, the objectives of those who framed the Federal Constitution were but little affected by the epidemic of human rights in the Western world4. It has been observed that the commission’s recommendation on the freedom of speech has been vague, particularly on the importance of the rights. The commission only devoted two paragraphs. The reason why it was so was clear in the paragraph itself. The draft Article 10 in our Constitution was as follow: 10 (1) every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by federal law in the interest of the security of the Federation, friendly relations with other countries, public order, or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to any offence. Mr. Justice Abdul Hamid on his note of dissent stated that â€Å"the word ‘reasonable’ wherever it occurs before the word ‘restrictions’ in the three sub-clauses of Article 10 should be omitted. Right to freedom of speech, assembly, and association has been guaranteed subject to restrictions which may be imposed in the interest of security of the country, public order and morality. If the Legislature imposes any restrictions in the interest of the aforesaid matters, considering those restrictions to be reasonable, that legislation should not be challengeable in a court of law on the ground that the restrictions are not reasonable. The Legislature alone should be the judge of what is reasonable under the circumstances. If the word ‘reasonable’ is allowed to stand, every legislation on this subject will be challengeable in court on the ground that the restrictions imposed by the legislature are not reasonable. This will in many cases give rise to conflict between the views of Legislature and the views of the court on the reasonableness of the restrictions. To avoid a situation like that it is better to make the Legislature the judge of the reasonableness of the restrictions. If this is not done the legislatures of the country will not be sure of the state of the law which they will enact. There will always be fear that the court may hold the restrictions imposed by it to be unreasonable. The laws would be lacking in certainty.† Later, when the Constitution comes into force, the Article 10 provides that: (1) subject to clause (2): (a) Every citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression; (2) Parliament may by law impose: –   (a) on the rights conferred by paragraph (a) of clause (1), such restrictions as it deems necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of the Federation, friendly relations with other countries, public order or morality and restrictions designed to protect the privileges of Parliament or of any legislative Assembly or to provide against contempt of courts, defamation, or incitement to any offence; There are one case regarding to press reported prior to independence i.e. Public Prosecutor v. The Straits Times Press Ltd5 In this case, upon the application of the Public Prosecutor, the Respondents, who are the proprietors of the Straits Times Press Ltd, were alleged contempt in publishing a report of the trial of Tan Seng Ann of the Straits Times dated 5 August 1948. The report appeared which, it is now admitted, was misleading and inaccurate in that it gave the impression, contrary to the facts, that the first step in the proceedings in that case was a voluntary confession by Tan Seng Ann that he was in possession of a fire-arm and that his arrest was made solely as the result of such voluntary confession in the issue. The Notice of Motion having set out the terms of the letter complained of went on to allege inter alia that the criminal case referred to in the letter was sub judice when the letter was published in that an appeal was pending; that the terms of the letter did not constitute a fair or accurate account of the trial nor fair comment thereon; and that its publication tended to prejudice the fair disposal of the proceedings and tended to bring into contempt the administration of justice by that Court. Spenser-Wilkinson J held that: â€Å"†¦I would hesitate to follow too closely the decisions of English Courts on this subject without first considering whether the relevant conditions in England and this country are at all similar. Quite apart from the present emergency in this country, I do not think it could be suggested that the development of the Press, the general standard of education or the composition of the general public in the two countries are at all comparable and it may, therefore, be necessary to take a stricter view here of matters which pertain to the dignity of the Courts and the impartial administration of justice than would be taken at the present time in England.† Newly Independence (1957-1980) At this period, Art 10 Federal Constitution has been amended twice. The first amendment was on 19636 where the words ‘Clause (2) and (3)’ had been substituted for the words ‘clause (2)’ of clause (1) with effect from 16 September 1963.and the words ‘or any part thereof’ were added to the Art10(2)(a). Further, clause (3) which provides that: â€Å"Restrictions on the right to form a associations conferred by paragraph (c) of clause (1) may also be imposed by any law relating to labour or education.† The second amendment was made on 19717 after considering the trouble of May 1969. This time, Clause (4) was added with effect from 10 March 1971. Article 10(4) provides that Parliament may pass laws prohibiting the questioning of four sensitive matters: right to citizenship under Part III of the Constitution; status of the Malay language; position and privileges of the Malays and the native of Sabah and Sarawak; and prerogatives of the Malay Sultans and the Ruling Chiefs of Negeri Sembilan. The constitutional changes enable Parliament to amend the Sedition Act of 1948 in order to add a new definition of ‘seditious tendency’8. The amended sections were: Section 3 (1) A seditious tendency is a tendency (f) To question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federal Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution Section 2 â€Å"seditious† when applied to or used in respect of any act, speech, words, publication or other thing qualifies the act, speech, words, publication or other thing as one having a seditious tendency; Official Secrets Act 1972 is a new law that be introduced at that time. This is the most important statute on government secrecy. The gist of the law is that ‘official secrets’ cannot be received, retained, released or used without prior authorization.9 The Act is drafted in the widest possible terms and is not limited in its operation to spies, saboteurs, traitors and mercenaries. The term ‘official secret’ is not defined in the Act. The courts have given the term the broadest possible definition, and on the generally accepted construction any communication pertaining to the Executive would constitute an offence.10 The right to free speech can be further eclipsed by the special provisions of Art 149 and 150 relating to subversion and emergency. Art 149 authorises legislative action designed to stop or prevent subversion, organized violence and crimes prejudicial to the public. Art 150 permits any legislative action required by reason of emergency. The grounds enumerated above permitting curtailment of free speech are so broad and comprehensive that in 49 years no Act of parliament even been found by the courts to have violated the Constitution. Besides printed media, television was introduced in Malaysia in 1963. The television was under the control of the Department of Broadcasting (RTM). What is apparent is that television and more generally broadcasting in Malaysia was form its inception closely aligned to the government. Both the RTM channel were established via decisions made by the then Alliance coalition government. Because of the circumstances at that time, there was no any specifics rule to govern the broadcasting. One of the cases that being heard at that time was Melan bin Abdullah v Public Prosecutor.11 The fact of the case was that On 6 April 1971 the Utusan Melaya newspaper published a report of a talk given by given by Inche Musa Hitam, a prominent Malay leader and member of Parliament, at the National Education Congress held in the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.. In the report was an editorial sub-heading, which in the English translation reads: â€Å"Abolish Tamil or Chinese medium schools in this country.† The first appellant was the editor-in-chief of the Utusan Melayu, and the second appellant the author of the sub-heading inserted in the report. Sanction for their prosecution was given under s 5(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, and they were tried in due course in the special sessions court on a charge of publishing a seditious publication in contravention of s 4(1)(C) of the Sedition Act, punishable under the same section. The learned special president held the publication to be seditious, that the first appellant â€Å"was responsible for all publication in the Utusan Melayu†, that the second appellant was the author of the impugned subheading, and that consequently they were both guilty. They were convicted and fined the sum of $500 and $1,000 respectively, in default one month and two months’ imprisonment, both appellant appealed. CJ Ong, on hearing of the appeal accepted the first appellant evidence that he had organised seminars and discussions, relating in particular to the â€Å"sensitive issues† and had instructed his staff on the relevant law as he understood it. He had sponsored a talk to journalists given on this subject in February 1971 by the Attorney General as well as the Solicitor-General. Therefore, the first respondent appeal was allowed. But the court dismissed the second respondent appeal. Another case is Public Prosecutor v Straits Times (Malaya) Bhd.12 The Public Prosecutor applied in this case for leave to issue a writ or writs of attachment for contempt of court on the respondents for publication of articles in The Straits Times. The grounds upon which relief was sought was that â€Å"the publications of the said articles contain matters which are tendentious and constitute contempt of court, because they are prejudicing and embarrassing the applicant in the exercise of his statutory functions and also prejudicing a fair trial concerning the circumstances of the death of one Robert Lee.† Abdul Hamid J held that: ‘I do not think that it is reasonable to construe these words as having any special meaning. There is no dispute that the reports do reveal that there had been an assault, a commotion and firing of a shot and that allegedly, a police officer was involved. But these facts are not challenged. As regards the previous episode encountered by Robert Lee there is nothing to show that this was not true. Further it is not uncommon for newspapers to publish matters concerning scholastic achievement of and other good deeds rendered by a person on his death particularly if the dead person enjoys a certain standing in the community or he is in one way or another related to any prominent personality. For that reason it is unreasonable to isolate certain passages from the reports and construe them unfavourably or to impute improper motive on the publisher. What may appear to be an embarrassment or prejudicial if that part is read in isolation may not be so if the reports are read as a whole taking into account the circumstances surrounding such publication particularly if it relates to a matter which will promote public sensation or a matter of unusual occurrence.† The application was therefore dismissed. Malaysia under Tun Dr. Mahathir (1981-2002) Over this period, more laws are introduced and come into force to govern the media. In 1984, Printing Presses and Publications Act came into force on the 1st of September 1984 as a consolidating Act, and in turn repealed the Printing Presses Act 1948 and the Control of Imported Publications Act 1958. The Act is designed ‘to regulate the use of printing, presses and the printing, importation, production, reproduction, publishing and distribution of publications and for matters connected there with’. Through such control, the government uses it power to determine what it is the public has a right to know, or exactly what form freedom of speech should take13. This is an Act designed clearly to ensure that the press does not get out of line, imposes both a system of licensing and censorship14. Section 3 of the Act makes it mandatory to obtain a license to own a printing press. The Minister has absolute discretion on giving, refusing, and revoking a license15. Further, judicial review of the Minister’s discretion is not allowed16 and the Minister is not required to give the parties a prior hearing17. The period of the license is 12 months or shorter period as minister specifies18. This means that all publishers in this country must suffer the pangs of uncertainty about whether their permit will be renewed for the following year. There is less control of what may be written in foreign publications, controls have been exercised through deliberate delay in distribution and sometimes outright ban on their sale where officials deemed reports to be offensive or inaccurate19. In 1988, another law governing the media came into force on 1st August i.e. The Broadcasting Act 1988. The preamble to the Act states: ‘An act to provide for the control of broadcasting services and for matters connected therewith’. The Act is both stringent and inflexible. It bestows enormous powers on the government to determine the type of television made available to the Malaysian public. In the midst of the supposed ‘deregulation’ of broadcasting, the Act now gives the Minister of Information virtually total powers to determine who will and who will not broadcast and the nature of the broadcast material. Under the Act, any potential broadcaster would need to apply for a licence from the minister beforehand. Later, the Act was amended on October 1996. By the amendment, this already-stringent piece of legislation were aimed at taking into account the introduction of new services, such as cable and satellite television, satellite radio, pay TV and video-on demand. Due to the drastic development in the electronic media, the Legislature has to repeal the old Telecommunication Act 1950 and the Broadcasting Act 1988 and introduced a new law which is the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. The Act’s breakthrough was to bring together the previously disparate industries of broadcasting, telecommunications and internet services combined under legislation and more importantly, one regulator the Communications and Multimedia commission.20 The Communication and Multimedia Act brings to the creation of Communication and Multimedia Commission Act 1998. the Communication and Multimedia Commission performing several functions including advising the Minister all matters concerning the national policy objectives for communication and multimedia activities and implementing and enforcing the provisions of the communications and multimedia law. Interestingly, Information Malaysia 1980-81 and Information Malaysia 1985 revealed that between 1981 and 1985 alone, the number of titles of local newspapers, magazines, and journals in circulation increased from 56 to 10221. However, the increase in number cannot be the proof supporting the allegation that during that time, the media was enjoying freedom of speech. There are some facts that we should not forget. In 1987, during the Operasi Lalang, a number of newspapers were closed by the government22. Later, Harakah being categorizes as publications of political parties meant for party members and there is law forbids the publication being openly sold to the public. Besides, Barisan Nasional owned and controlled major Malaysian media organization. Further, prior to Dato Seri Anwar’s sacking, expulsion, and detention, the editor of Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, and the director of operations of TV3 were forced to resign because they were allied to Anwar. In 1990, there was a case of Aliran Kesedaran23 In this case, the respondents had applied for a permit under s 6(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 to print and publish in Bahasa Malaysia a magazine under the name and style of Seruan Aliran. The application was refused by the Minister of Home Affairs. The respondents applied for an order of certiorari to remove into the High Court for the purpose of quashing the decision of the Minister and for an order of mandamus directing the Minister to hear and determine the application for the permit according to law. The High Court made an order quashing the decision of the Minister and ordered that the Minister shall hear and determine according to law the application for the permit. The appellant appealed. The court allowing the appeal and held that; ‘Section 12(2) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 gives the Minister of Home Affairs ‘absolute discretion to refuse an application for a license or permit’. So unless it can be clearly established that the Minister for Home Affairs had in any way exercised his discretion wrongfully, unfairly, dishonestly or in bad faith, the High Court cannot question the discretion of the Minister.† One of the significant cases during this period was the case of Irene Fernandez. The facts were that in 1995, Tenaganita released a report documenting beatings, sexual violence against detainees by prison guards, and inadequate food and water in Malaysia’s immigration detention camp. Irene Fernandez was arrested and charged with malicious publication of false news under the Printing Presses and Publications Act. Magistrate Juliana Mohamed found Irene guilty and was sentence to one year imprison. Current Situation (2003-2006) Between these periods of time, there is no any new law designed to control the media. However, recently, Government has released the Media Council Bill (2006) which seeks to ameliorate some of the worst excess of the Printing Presses and Publications Act in regard to the local media. On page 4 of the Bill, it was stated: â€Å"An Act to establish the Malaysian Press Council for the purpose of preserving, promoting and protecting the freedom of the Press, of maintaining and improving the ethical and professional journalistic standards of newspapers, press publications and news/press agencies in Malaysia.† Nevertheless, there is fear in public that this piece of legislation will create another unnecessary public body with wide powers to curb press freedom despite its apparent duty to uphold that right. It might also act as a censorship board, only dealing with complaints against the press organisations and journalists and not against denial of freedom of expression by other entities such as ministers or organisations whose actions effectively suppress the right of freedom of expression. Besides, bear in mind that all the laws governing the media before this are still firmly in place and the main stream media also continue to be owned by interests directly or indirectly tied to the main component parties of the BN, especially UMNO and MCA. Some incidents happened during this time of period, showing to us that despite of the changes of the head of the Government, the media are not freer compared to the years before. The government shut down the Sarawak tribune for the editors made a mistake of reprinting caricatures of Prophet Muhammad following Muslim protests of a Danish paper that first published them. Another incident was that the Minister of Information, Datuk Zainuddin had sought the sacking of top NST editor at a meeting of UMNO’s information bureau because he was unhappy with the way the NST had played up certain issues such as the religious rights of minorities and the government’s policy on bumiputras.24 The government also delays in reviewing the publishing permit of the Oriental Daily and censor certain news that the government were not comfortable with. Moreover, the debate on Ninth Malaysia Plan was given wide publicity in the media, but it was the official view and rationale for the Plan that enjoyed one-sided coverage. The leader of the opposition who spoke foe six hours on the Plan did not get any substantive coverage.25 Another issue was that Tun Dr. Mahathir had called a press conference to express his deep disappointment after Datuk Seri Abdullah dismissed the ‘crooked bridge’ project. However, the mainstream media hardly covered it. Conclusions The freedom of the media has seen become more restrictive from the time prior to independence until now. At the early day, the British Colonial has a freer media compare to the media after independence. This might be because of the British regarded the individual freedom as up most important. When came to the early day after independence, the laws being designed were more restricted. However, this was understandable as the situation at that time, where Malaysia was in an Emergency. Unmindful speech might cause riot to the nation. Therefore, the government had to take step to prevent this. In 1970-1985, there was more cases on freedom of speech, after the stand of the courts are clear in these issues, there was lesser cases. During the time frame from 1981 to 2002, many laws were designed and many existing laws were amended. Tun Dr. Mahathir tried to justify this by saying that: ‘the truth is that there is no absolute press freedom anywhere in the world, be it in a liberal democratic country or in countries governed by dictators.†26 He further claimed that journalists and foreigners read a few newspapers which support the government and immediately concluded that there is no press freedom in Malaysia. This was in conjunction with his view points that: â€Å"Malaysian newspapers are free. But this freedom does not mean freedom to criticize the government alone. It also means freedom to support the government.†27 Further in Tun Dr. Mahathir speech at the national union of Journalists dinner on 15th June 1990, he stated that: ‘According to an old English proverb, power corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. If there are restrictions on press freedom, especially pertaining to reports on violence, sex and obscenity, then they are imposed because no one should be given absolute power. This is to prevent the possibility of ‘absolute corruption’. This constraint no way suggests there is no press freedom in Malaysia. Government leaders in this country have no absolute power. The people can change the government while the courts can reverse government decisions. Therefore, newspapers in Malaysia must accept these restrictions. This is done in the national interest and not aimed at destroying press freedom†. It is true that freedom of the media has to be limited but over limiting will only result to a closed society. Looking at the current situation, many are thinking that the new government would promote media freedom in view of the government transparency policy. However, one should bear in mind that since Datuk Seri Abdullah took over the government until today, it was only three years passed. It is unfair to judge him at this moment. Whether or not there is free media under Datuk Seri Abdullah, we shall wait and see. Comparing to our nearest neighbor, Singapore, media in Malaysia enjoy more freedom. Singapore as a police state, the press is mobilized to explain and support the policies of the Singapore government, as an aid to development rather than assuming a counter-checking posture. In Chee Siok Chin case28, the Singapore court held that: â€Å"it bears emphasis that the phrase ‘necessary or expedient’ confers on Parliament an extremely wide discretionary power and remit that permits a multifarious and multifaceted approach towards achieving any of the purposes specified in Art 14(2) of the constitution. In contrast to the Indian Constitution, there can be no questioning of whether the Legislations are ‘reasonable’. The court’s sole task, when a constitutional challenge is advanced, is to ascertain whether an impugned law is within the purview of any of the permissible restrictions.† As for electronic media, the media Corporation of Singapore, an evolution from a series of government owned broadcast Corporations, dominances the broadcasting media. The PAP government guards the broadcast turf with rigour, grudgingly allowing foreigner broadcasters to operate for commercial and public relations reasons but legislating them off local politics. Today, Malaysian society has an economic level of existence which provides for basic needs, health facilities, adequate housing and equal opportunities to education. Therefore, there is no reason why freedom of speech and free media should be restricted. Values of freedom of expression, exposure to critical thinking and the importance of a civil society should be emphasizes. After 49 years of independence, Malaysian should not only concern with earning a livelihood and basic quality of life issues. Society shall have desire to acquire knowledge especially in social concerns such as freedom of speech. Bibliography: 1. â€Å"A Case of the Media Freedom: Report of the SUHAKAM†, Workshop on Freedom of the Media at Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 1, 2002. (Kuala Lumpur: Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia Malaysia, 2003). 2. Abdul Aziz Bari, ‘Freedom of Speech and Expression in Malaysia After Forty Years’, (1998) 27.3 INSAF 149-161. 3. Abraham, C.E.R., â€Å"Freedom of Speech for Whom? The Malaysian Case†, (1998) 27.3 INSAF 1-8. 4. Asian Human Rights Commission, homepage, 10 Sept. 2006 5. Asian Human Rights Commission, homepage, 10 Sept. 2006 6. Broadcasting Act 1988 (Act 338). 7. Centre for Independent Journalism, 10 Sept. 2006 8. Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588). 9. Communication and Multimedia Commission Act 1998. (Act 599). 10. Constitution (Amendment) Act 1971 (Act A30). 11. Control of Imported Publications Act 1958 (Ord 14 of 1955) 12. Cyrus V. Das, â€Å"Press Freedom & Contempt of Court†, (1986) 19.3 INSAF 61. 13. Faruqi, Shad Saleem, â€Å"Access to Information†, [1993] 4 Malaysia Current Law Journal xxiii. 14. —, â€Å"Curbing Excesses of Free Speech†, Sunday Star, 10 Feb, 2002, Focus. 15. —, â€Å"Cyber Challenge to Freedom of Speech†, Sunday Star, 27 Jan, 2002, Focus. 16. —,†Keeping A Tight Lid on Official Secrets†, Sunday Star, 17 Feb, 2002, Focus. 17. —, â€Å"Life-blood of Free Society†, Sunday Star, 20 Jan, 2002, Focus. 18. —, â€Å"Pifalls for the Unwary Media†, Sunday Star, 3 March, 2002, Focus. 19. —, â€Å"Principles That Govern Free Speech†, Sunday Star, 3 Feb, 2002, Focus. 20. Federal Constitution. 21. â€Å"Freedom of the Press? A Quick Look At the Borneo Mail Affair and the Question: How Free Is the Local Press?†. 1994 (June) Malaysian Law News, 36-37. 22. Hashim Makaruddin, ed., Ensiklopedia Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamed: Perdana Menteri Malaysia, (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-Masri, 2005). 23. Hickling, R.H., Hickling’s Malaysian Public Law, (Petalng Jaya: Longman, 2003). 24. â€Å"I Know How The People Feel†, (1986) 19.4 INSAF 18. 25. Kanesalingam, A., â€Å"Democracy and the Law†, (1998) 27.4 INSAF 105-115. 26. Mahathir Mohamed, â€Å"Freedom of the Press: Malaysian Perspective†, 1990 (Aug) Malaysian Law News, 521-522. 27. Malaysia Act 1963 (No.26/63). 28. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary 3 Sept. 2006 29. Mohamad Ariff Yusuf, â€Å"Freedom of the Press in Malaysia†, 10th Law Asia Conference, (Kuala Lumpur, June 21 – July 4, 1987). 30. Mustafa K. Anuar, Anil Netto, â€Å"Malaysian Ready for Press Freedom†, 5 Sept. 2006, 31. —, Joint Coordination, Charter 2000, Aliran Online, 6 Sept. 2006 32. Officials Secrets Act 1972 (Act 88) 33. Officials Secrets (Amendment) Act 1983 34. Officials Secrets (Amendment) Act 1986 35. 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