Amid lawsuit, Village of Key Biscayne temporarily suspends ‘gag’ policy
The Village of Key Biscayne, Florida, has temporarily suspended a policy that prohibits public employees from speaking with the news media without prior approval, the Key Biscayne Independent reported this week.
The village suspended the policy following the filing of a federal lawsuit by the nonprofit newsroom with free legal support from attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Shullman Fugate. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the so-called “gag” policy, arguing that it stifles the free flow of information to the public and violates the First Amendment rights of the public and press, as well as Key Biscayne employees.
A Key Biscayne spokeswoman confirmed the policy suspension to the Independent but declined to provide more details. The lawsuit is ongoing.
In its complaint, the Independent highlighted how its journalists have struggled to obtain timely information from public employees who were previously willing to speak with its reporters on some of the most important stories in Key Biscayne. The gag policy states that an employee could be subject to disciplinary action if he or she speaks to media entities without permission from senior officials.
“[Key Biscayne’s] gag order goes to an unprecedented level of information manipulation for this community,” Tony Winton, the Independent’s editor-in-chief, wrote in an editorial after the lawsuit was filed in June. “A blanket restriction on Village employees that they cannot speak to reporters unless their words have ‘approval’ is beyond the pale in any community that places facts over spin. It is a restriction that limits fact gathering on matters both mundane and massive.”
This isn’t the first time Reporters Committee attorneys have challenged the constitutionality of a gag policy. Last year, a First Amendment lawsuit brought by journalist Brittany Hailer, with free legal support from Reporters Committee attorneys and the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, forced a Pennsylvania county to revise jail policies that barred its employees and contractors from speaking with the news media about matters of public concern without permission.