Week in review: Herald-Tribune's legal fight + Manatee candidate part of 'Q'? + more 'affordable' apartments for Bradenton + Juneteenth events + Bentley the dog
There will be a week, I am sure, when the Manatee County Commission won’t make headlines because of political differences among its members. This was not that week.
And certainly there will be a week when COVID-19 in Manatee doesn’t worsen. This was not that week, either.
But first this …
The most outrageous story this week is not from a local news outlet but about a local news outlet, the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is seeking to overturn an emergency injunction granted by a judge Friday night to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office barring the news organization from publishing the names of two of the deputies involved in a fatal shooting.
The ruling, which granted the injunction without notice to the Herald-Tribune, is an unconstitutional prior restraint of the press, prohibited by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Florida Constitution, according to the newspaper’s emergency motion to dissolve the injunction. The motion was filed Monday by Carol Jean LoCicero and James B. Lake, from the firm of Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa, which represents the Herald-Tribune.
“Freedom of speech means that it’s up to the Herald-Tribune to decide whether to report information in its possession, especially facts about such a significant matter as a fatal shooting by law enforcement,” Lake said. “We fully expect that, once our arguments are heard, the injunction will be set aside.”
Set aside whether it was ever the intent of Marsy’s Law to protect the identity of taxpayer-paid law enforcement officers who use deadly force. The judge’s order against the newspaper is an affront to long-established protection enjoyed by the news media against government officials, including judges, blocking the publishing of a story.
Not only does the order infringe on the Herald-Tribune’s right to publish what it wants, but it blocks the public from learning more about the deputies involved in the shooting.
That publishing the story might somehow inconvenience or embarrass the sheriff’s office or some other officials is exactly why we have a First Amendment.
Other media, and everyone in the public, should loudly stand alongside the Herald-Tribune as it carries on this important fight.
Related coverage | Herald-Tribune fighting injunction against alleged Marsy's Law violations (SNN)
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