Now press freedom is another issue. The Orlando Sentinel and news organizations plan to fight this new law on grounds that it violates First Amendment guarantees and the Florida open records law, the most liberal in the nation. They seem like valid concerns, but I think they're a crock. Because limiting the flow of public information is not without precedent. Personnel records are usually shielded, too.
Items threatening national security are also closed to the public.
Newspapers themselves have taken steps to limit information for the good of the community. Papers normally withhold the names of rape victims in an effort to keep the victim from further undue emotional distress. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we should limit access to all public records, but limiting the access of these photos certainly makes sense because of their personal nature. If you release these very painful photos of Earnhardt, the nightmare of this whole ordeal would constantly revisit the Earnhardt family, conceivably everywhere they turn. It's clearly written within this new law that anyone with just cause to see those records can get them.