GAWKER MEDIA, LLC a/k/a Gawker Media, Appellant, v. TERRY GENE BOLLEA, professionally known as Hulk Hogan; HEATHER CLEM; GAWKER MEDIA GROUP, INC. a/k/a Gawker Media; GAWKER ENTERTAINMENT, LLC; GAWKER TECHNOLOGY, LLC; GAWKER SALES, LLC; NICK DENTON; A.J. DAULERIO; KATE BENNERT; and BLOGWIRE HUNGARY SZELLEMI ALKOTAST HASZNOSITO KFT a/k/a Gawker Media, Appellees., 129 So. 3d 1196

Summary

HOLDINGS: A temporary injunction precluding a publisher from publishing a tape of a wrestler having sex during an extramarital affair (sex tape) was an unconstitutional prior restraint under the First Amendment, U.S. Const. amend. I; as a result of the public controversy surrounding the affair and the sex tape, exacerbated in part by the wrestler himself, the report and the related video excerpts addressed matters of public concern; the publisher did not attempt to sell the sex tape or any of the material creating the controversy, but reported on the wrestler's extramarital affair and complementary thereto posted excerpts from the video; [2]-The sex tape was protected by the First Amendment, even if it was created illegally under §§ 810.145(2)(a) and 934.03, Fla. Stat. (2006), as the publisher was not responsible for its creation and did not obtain it unlawfully.