Florida

The popular website Gawker partially complied with a Florida judge’s order to take down a clip of a Hulk Hogan sex tape but refused to delete the accompanying article, citing the restraint as a violation of the gossip-news outlet's First Amendment rights.

Pinellas County Circuit Judge Pamela A.M. Campbell on Wednesday ordered Gawker to take down the video, the 1,400-word accompanying article and the 466 user-submitted comments at the famous professional wrestler’s request.

A federal judge in Miami today dismissed the defamation suit against a U.S.-based Haitian journalist and retracted a previous court order prohibiting him from ever publishing anything about the Haitian prime minister and a Florida businessman.

A federal judge in Miami ordered a Haitian-American journalist to never again publish anything about the prime minister of Haiti or a Florida businessman, as part of a defamation judgment.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and businessman Patrice Baker sued Leo Joseph and the Haiti-Observateur, a New York City-based, bi-language Haitian newspaper managed by Joseph.

The Florida attorney general has dropped its efforts to compel a reporter’s testimony in the ongoing case against a former aide to the state’s lieutenant governor.

Attorney General Pam Bondi withdrew an appeal Wednesday of a trial judge’s November order, which said that Florida Times-Union reporter Matt Dixon could not be compelled to testify in the state’s case against Carletha Cole.

According to court documents, the state was “voluntarily dismissing” its appeal. The Jacksonville newspaper had planned to fight the appeal.

A Florida judge on Monday denied a proposed gag order that would muzzle all attorneys and law enforcement officers involved in the prosecution of George Zimmerman.

More than a dozen news media organizations are opposing a proposed gag order in the George Zimmerman prosecution that would silence all attorneys involved.

A Florida judge denied prosecutors’ attempts to seal court records and close future hearings in the prosecution of George Zimmerman, ruling in a hearing today that “this is an open court, this is a public case.”

The 2012 Republican National Convention last week saw minimal arrests, no violence and fewer protesters, a marked contrast from past conventions. The Democratic convention is also starting off with few incidents.

Media lawyers are concerned about a temporary ordinance that, among other things, bans certain items, such as gas masks, during the upcoming Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.