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WTVJ-NBC 6 v. SHEHADEH
56 So.3d 104 (2011)
WTVJ-NBC 6, and Jeff Burnside, Petitioners,
v.
Mohd A. SHEHADEH a/k/a Mike A. Shehadeh, and the City of Homestead, Respondents.
No. 3D10-3438.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
March 9, 2011.
Before SUAREZ, SALTER, and EMAS, JJ.
SALTER, J. WTVJ-NBC 6, a television network affiliate (WTVJ), and its reporter, Jeff Burnside, seek a writ of certiorari to quash an order compelling Burnside to appear for deposition on a limited topic relating to an earlier news broadcast. The broadcast (as well as the underlying lawsuit in which the subpoena was served on WTVJ and Burnside) covered a dispute between the City Council of the City of Homestead, Florida, and its former City Manager, Mike Shehadeh. The issue presented below was whether WTVJ and Burnside were entitled to a protective order under Florida's "journalist's privilege," section 90.5015, Florida Statutes (2010). We find that WTVJ and Burnside were entitled to invoke the qualified privilege set forth in section 90.5015; that Shehadeh did not "make a clear and specific showing" regarding two of the three elements identified in the statute; and that the trial court's order1 compelling WTVJ and Burnside to appear for a limited-scope deposition should be quashed. Background In the subpoena duces tecum and motion by Shehadeh to compel WTVJ and Burnside to appear for deposition, Shehadeh sought "the original of a CD/Diskette of pin messages;2 text messages; and/or e-mails of employees and/or officials of the City of Homestead believed to have been turned over to the press, including [WTVJ], in connection with the investigation of former Homestead City Manager [Shehadeh]." Shehadeh's motion represented "upon information and belief" that the diskette had been given to WTVJ and Burnside between December 2009 and March 2010 "by officials of the City of Homestead, Pat Franklin Investigations, or Richard Weiss, Esq., the City Attorney of the City of Homestead." Shehadeh and his attorneys also alleged that the diskette "has been circulated to a number of news organizations and other private individuals." Finally, Shehadeh's motion to compel alleged that video news reports authored by Burnside suggested that Burnside had received the diskette "either through a public records request from the City of Homestead or a `leak.'" The trial court conducted a short motion calendar hearing on the cross-motions to compel filed by Shehadeh and for a protective order filed by WTVJ and Burnside. Shehadeh's counsel advised the court that he wanted Burnside "to tell us how he got the CD." The trial court concluded that Burnside could be compelled to appear for a deposition "limited to questioning as to whether he filed a public records request" (because it was a question about a "public act") and entered an order to that effect; WTVJ's and Burnside's present petition is directed to that order. The Qualified Privilege
1. We previously stayed the trial court's order pending our consideration of additional responses to the petition for certiorari by the respondents.
2. "Pin messages" are typically unencrypted text messages sent from one personal handheld device, such as a Blackberry, to another without going through an intermediate server.
3. § 90.5015(2), Fla. Stat. (2010).
4. TheStreet.com, Inc. v. Carroll, 20 So.3d 947, 949 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009) (citing Allstate Ins. Co. v. Langston, 655 So.2d 91, 94 (Fla. 1995)).
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