Florida Appeals Court to Review TV Station Prior Restraint Order
 
March 22, 2007
 
Charles D. "Chuck" Tobin- Washington

Nearly a dozen media companies have joined in support of a television station’s efforts to overturn an Orlando judge’s prior restraint order.

Post-Newsweek station WKMG Local 6 has lodged an appeal in Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal requesting that the appellate court release it from an order restraining it from broadcasting information about a local political consultant. The station and the consultant have filed their briefs and are awaiting a hearing date.

The case began after a WKMG reporter told viewers that an unnamed source had provided the station with 80 boxes of documents that the political operative, Douglas Guetzloe, had left at a storage facility. According to the station’s legal papers, when the man did not pay his storage bill, the facility followed state law and sold the boxes at auction. Guetzloe has argued in court that the storage facility failed to properly debit his account.

The station’s source paid $10 for the boxes, opened them and then contacted WKMG. The source remembered that Guetzloe had recently been in the news in central Florida. Journalists reported that he had been paid $107,500 to advise a local highway commission as to why people dislike paying tolls. At that time, the agency produced a two-page report as Guetzloe’s only work, but since then, the consultant has produced dozens more documents that he says he created for the agency. The highway commission’s chair resigned in the wake of these news reports.

Guetzloe has been prosecuted for alleged violations of state elections laws, and the local prosecutor and WKMG are currently battling over the prosecutor’s subpoena of the station for the records.

Guetzloe filed a lawsuit in January against WKMG seeking return of the documents. Without notice to the station, Guetzloe obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting the publication of any information from the boxes. A few days later, at the station’s request, the judge modified the order, freeing up the station to report some of the information. But he refused to completely lift the prior restraint, renewing the prohibition against the station for reporting “Guetzloe’s personal medical records and those of his wife and children,” any “paper referring to the state of his or his family members’ mental or physical health,” and “communications of any kind between Guetzloe and his attorneys.”

The judge also ordered that if the station “in good faith has a reasonable doubt” about whether a specific document falls within the injunction, it should show it to Guetzloe’s lawyers. If they cannot agree, the judge’s order requires the station to contact him for a ruling.

WKMG’s appeal argues that the initial entry of the injunction without notice violated its rights to due process, and that the order that remains in place is an unconstitutional prior restraint.

A coalition of television stations, newspapers and media professional associations have filed an amici curiae brief in support of the station. The amici reinforced the importance of press reporting on political operatives like Guetzloe, referring to the recent court proceedings involving notable national political operatives like Jack Abramoff and I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. “Recent events outside of Florida demonstrate the vital public interest in the activities of those who operate on the periphery of government – and outside of the reach of the State’s public records and open meetings laws – like [Guetzloe],” the amici wrote in their brief.

The amici group includes the following: Associated Press, Cable News Network, Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fox Television Stations, First Amendment Foundation, Florida Association of Broadcasters, Florida Press Association, Gannett, Hearst, New York Times Group, E.W. Scripps Company, Tribune Company and Washington Post Company.

Holland & Knight represents the coalition of amici curiae in this matter.

 

For more information, e-mail Charles D. Tobin at charles.tobin@hklaw.com or call toll free, 1-888-688-8500.