Millions of people all over the world use access to information laws every day to obtain official information, no matter the medium it is stored on.

Citizens in Jamaica have embraced their Access to Information Act since it was fully implemented in July 2005, making more than 450 requests in the first year.

Dr. Carolyn Gomes, executive director of Jamaicans for Justice, says the law was used to uncover information about sexual abuse and conditions in children's homes and orphanages which led to a 600-page report being produced.

A request was also made in the Caribbean island to find out why fish were dying in a river, whether it was due to a chemical spill, and what the Government was doing to clean up water used for drinking, bathing and fishing.

And, recently, a mother was able to obtain her son's common entrance exam paper to discover why he had received the mark he had.

The families of soldiers who have committed suicide in Iraq are currently using America's FOI law to find out the circumstances leading up to their loved ones death and how it was handled.

Under the legislation, they are able to obtain a detailed report into what happened — though it can take time to get it.

In the UK, bereaved father Graham Knight, whose 25-year-old son Ben was one of the 14 servicemen who died in the Nimrod spy plane crash in Afghanistan, found out using FOI that there had were 2,496 safety incidents surrounding Nimrods and that they were prone to fuel leaks.

He fought to have the information disclosed after the RAF failed to release the report of its board of inquiry, which found that ageing components and lack of fire suppressants were partly to blame for the 2006 crash.

In Alberta, Canada, Henry Schlogel is engaged in a long-running quest to find out how his 92-year-old mother Erna died at a continuing care centre. He has been able to obtain her health records under FOI and is now questioning why doctors gave her a drug for dementia with known side effects in the elderly.

In India, documents obtained through access to information requests uncovered the fact that money for infrastructure projects, such as a canal for clean water, was being stolen by the contractor and the paperwork forged.

A single mother in Thailand used her right to information to demonstrate that her daughter was denied a place in the best public schools, not because she had failed the entrance exam, as the school directors claimed, but simply because she was poor and could not pay the bribes.