Miami Herald subpoenaed in connection with airline defamation suit

The Miami Herald was subpoenaed on Oct. 31, 2024, in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed in Florida federal court by an airline company. The request was struck down a few weeks later.

The company, Monarch Air, had been the subject of an article published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative journalism organization based in the Netherlands.

The lawsuit alleged that the article insinuated Monarch was involved in criminal activity, and that it knowingly left errors online for months after being alerted to falsehoods. Monarch also asserted that reporter Lily Dobrovolskaya, who wrote the article, had initially sought to publish the article with the Herald.

The October subpoena requested all communications between the Herald and Dobrovolskaya, the OCCRP and its parent company — the Journalism Development Network — concerning the airline, along with details concerning the Herald’s decision not to publish the article.

McClatchy Co., which publishes the Herald, filed a motion to quash the subpoena Nov. 5, citing Florida’s qualified reporter’s privilege, which protects journalists from disclosing newsgathering materials.

The filing argued that there were no allegations that McClatchy or the Herald had a role in the production of the article and therefore no basis for arguing that the requested communications are “highly relevant” to the airline’s claims.

“Conjecture or speculation that a fishing expedition into another media organization’s files might turn up something that Plaintiff thinks could be helpful is decidedly insufficient to overcome the privilege,” the motion said.

Magistrate Judge Jared Strauss sided with McClatchy on Nov. 19, ruling that — even if Dobrovolskaya had initially pitched the article to the Herald — the airline had speculated without basis on why the newspaper declined to publish it.

“And speculation does not cut it, particularly when Plaintiff bears a ‘heavy burden’ of satisfying this element by ‘clear and convincing evidence,’” Strauss wrote.

The Herald did not respond to a request for comment.