Tribune Co. v. Huffstetler

FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., Judge.

Appellants, The Tribune Company, publisher of the Tampa Tribune, and James Tunstall, one of its reporters, appeal from an order of civil contempt issued after Tun-stall refused to reveal the source for an article he wrote.

In July, 1983, Tunstall and another reporter authored an article entitled “Complaints Filed Against Two Commissioners.” The article quoted a confidential source as stating that “an influential resident of West Hernando County” had sent a complaint to the state’s Ethics Commission charging two Hernando County commissioners with misuse of their…