New posts will be created in most of the government offices and non-government organisations (NGOs). Officials holding those posts will provide people with the information they seek within 20 days of receipt of applications from them, says the ordinance.

But in cases of issues concerning a person's life and death, arrest and release from jail, the officials will have to provide primary information within 24 hours, it says.

WACC has announced that investigative journalist Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, a daily TV/radio news show airing on more than 700 stations worldwide, is to receive its Communication for Peace Award. The ceremony will take place at WACC’s international conference – ‘Communication is peace: Building viable communities’ – in Cape Town, South Africa, 6-10 October 2008.

Amy Goodman draws her inspiration from independent thinkers, artists, activists, journalists and alternative media around the world – those who challenge the powers that be. In Static, she writes: ‘Every day, Democracy Now! breaks the sound barrier by broadcasting a rich, dissenting, diverse range of voices. This includes the powerful and the grassroots, the banned, the celebrated, the despised, marginalized and ignored. These are the voices of people fighting to make the world a better, more humane, just, peaceful, and more compassionate place.’