This book makes a basic promise: It will help you pry loose government information. Governments are obsessed with controlling the message. This is your book to help get records they do not want to disclose. Your Right to Know tells you how to use freedom-of-information laws to gain access to government records on spending, policies and activities. It is a citizen s guide and a research tool for the general public, special-interest groups, journalists and businesses. Freedom-of-information laws exist in dozens of countries, and this book shares the principles of research in easy-to-pursue steps to obtain the information you want from governments and other institutions."