FEMA recipient addresses ordered released
The public’s right to know triumphed over government secrecy June 22 when the
Federal Emergency Management Agency was ordered to make public the addresses of
more than 600,000 households that received $1.2 billion in aid following the
2004 hurricane season.
The News-Press, Pensacola News Journal and Florida
Today newspapers, all owned by Gannett Co. Inc., sued FEMA for the names and
addresses after their public-information request was denied by the
agency.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the newspapers have a right to the addresses, but not the names, of
recipients of disaster aid.
Read the full story in the News-Press.