{"id":93013,"date":"2025-12-22T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93013\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:30:08","slug":"federal-judge-lets-gag-policy-lawsuit-move-forward-against-key-biscayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93013\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge lets \u2018gag policy\u2019 lawsuit move forward against Key Biscayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal judge on Monday brushed aside as premature an effort to end a lawsuit challenging the Village of Key Biscayne\u2019s news media \u2018gag policy.\u2019 The policy could have led to discipline for any Village employee who spoke to the news media without authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ruling by the U.S. District Court Judge Ed Artau means that discovery in the First Amendment case will proceed, potentially including depositions of Village officials and the staff of the Key Biscayne Independent. The KBI filed the case earlier this year, after Manager Steve Williamson imposed the policy following reporting involving local Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar\u2019s condo unit. <\/p>\n

The Village argued the civil rights lawsuit was partially moot because Williamson withdrew the policy, and the Village Council passed a resolution stating its \u201cintent\u201d to not have a binding news media policy. \u201cA subsequent enactment of a media policy would be in contravention of the act of Village Council,\u201d said the Village attorney\u2019s brief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in court papers, the newspaper argued the Council\u2019s action is actually nonbinding, and does not stop Williamson or future managers from reimposing gag policies after the case is over. It noted that media access issues persist and continue to raise a flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff has shown reason to believe that the Village might well re-enact the policy if this litigation ended today,\u201d said the Independent\u2019s attorneys in the newspaper\u2019s brief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The brief also said the Village seems to be arguing that the Council cannot restrict the manager\u2019s instructions to staff because of a provision in the Village Charter, hence the reason for the use of the word \u201cintent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPut simply, the Village asks this Court to take its word for it,\u201d the brief reads, saying if that\u2019s true, then a formal ruling against the media policy is needed all the more.<\/p>\n

Judge Artau ruled that \u201cthe Court concludes that discovery is warranted,\u201d citing a case that held that a court should not prematurely dismiss a claim until relevant facts can be gathered. The question of whether the case is moot \u2013or even whether Artau has jurisdiction to decide the matter\u2013\u00a0 will be decided later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Artau was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump earlier this year, after serving on Florida\u2019s Fourth District Court of Appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The Independent is represented by attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nationally recognized media freedom organization, and the firm of Shullman Fugate.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the case are article<\/a>s published in 2024 regarding a Village Building, Zoning and Planning Department investigation of items being stored in Salazar\u2019s condo unit in Key Biscayne before a certificate of occupancy had been issued. Williamson imposed the policy shortly thereafter, the suit claims, damaging the public\u2019s right to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williamson\u2019s policy directed employees to get authorization from himself or Village spokesperson Jessica Drouet before they could talk to reporters \u2014 and if they didn\u2019t they could be disciplined or fired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such policies have been called \u201cCensorship by PIO\u201d by the Society of Professional Journalists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n

Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Monday brushed aside as premature an effort to end a lawsuit challenging the Village…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49714,2687,1581,123,125,124,49715,31769,31770,49716,1584,127],"class_list":["post-93013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-ed-artau","tag-first-amendment","tag-gag-policy","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-news-media","tag-press-freedom","tag-reporters-committee-for-freedom-of-the-press","tag-society-of-professional-journalists","tag-steve-williamson","tag-village-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}