A bizarre West Palm Beach murder trial has underscored the fundamental importance of freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial. The saga involves public records, a notorious jailhouse snitch and a judge who disregarded the First Amendment by muzzling a newspaper. An appeals court set things right Tuesday, but this tale […]
Judge’s ruling violates the First Amendment – Tallahassee Democrat
The Tallahassee Democrat and the Florida Society of News Editors are deeply troubled by the ruling of Circuit Judge Jack Schramm Cox in Palm Beach County that ordered the removal of published material from the website of the Palm Beach Post. We urge Judge Cox to rescind his order censoring the media and to affirm […]
A victory for open government – The Daytona Beach News Journal
Gov. Rick Scott’s firing of Gerald Bailey as commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement last year wasn’t just a political bungle. The way it was carried out violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the state’s open meeting laws. If anything good came out of it, though, it’s that the governor and […]
