Every filing every US public company makes to the Securities and Exchange Commission is published on a free public database. Annual reports, quarterly results, executive compensation, insider share sales, material events. No subscription, no registration, no reason required. A competitor, a journalist or a private individual reads the same file on the same day.
Sunshine laws
Every US state has its own open records statute, and most require public bodies to hold their meetings in public, with advance notice of the agenda. The name is the argument. The default position is that the business of public bodies is visible, and closing a session requires a stated legal reason on the record.
The Freedom of Information Act
Signed in 1966 and effective from Independence Day 1967, it establishes that any person may request records from a federal agency.
Any person. Not any citizen — a foreign national, a corporation, a journalist from another country all have the same standing. And the requester does not have to say why they want it. The burden of justification sits entirely with the agency withholding.