> Most people don't know that under the terms of most democracies, in principle, any citizen has the right to go to any public office and request basically anyt

> Most people don't know that under the terms of most democracies, in principle, any citizen has the right to go to any public office and request basically anything non-classified: documents, accounts, etc. [..] Obviously, no one believes for one minute that any 'normal' citizen will be granted access to most things. [citation needed] In the US, there’s the federal Freedom of Information Act and state equivalents. You don’t walk into an office; you send requests online. And there are more exceptions than just classification, such as privacy. But it’s far from theoretical: normal citizens can and do obtain access to all sorts of interesting documents. Sometimes the agency will refuse to provide the information you want despite it not being covered by a valid exception, or tries to charge an unreasonable fee, but in that case you can sue them: that’s admittedly expensive and slow, but it’s possible. News organizations in particular do it all the time, and often end up winning.