A Mississippi judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday requiring the Clarksdale Press Register to remove an editorial from its website. The ruling was sparked by the city of Clarksdale, who sued the newspaper saying the critical opinion piece was libel.
The editorial, titled “Secrecy, deception erode public trust,” lambasted Clarksdale city officials for failing to notify the news media before holding a special meeting in early February where a tax resolution on alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco was approved.
“This newspaper was never notified,” the article read. “We know of no other media organization that was notified.”
Beyond remanding officials for neglecting to notify the media about the meeting, the piece went on to question the motivation behind the resolution and whether commissioners or the mayor received a “kickback” or if they used the measure as an excuse to spend “a few nights in Jackson to lobby for this idea – at public expense.”
On Feb. 13, five days after the editorial was published, the Clarksdale Board of Mayor and Commissioners voted to sue the newspaper for libel. The board noted that a public notice was created for the meeting, but the city clerk forgot to email a copy to Floyd Ingram, the editor and publisher of the Clarksdale Press Register, as is typical protocol.
The lawsuit from the city asserts lobbying efforts for the tax proposal to the state legislature were hindered by the “libelous assertions and statements” made by Ingram in the editorial. Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Crystal Wise Martin ruled in favor of the city’s request for a temporary restraining order, requiring the newspaper to take the editorial down.
“The injury in this case is defamation against public figures through actual malice in reckless disregard of the truth and interferes with their legitimate function to advocate for legislation they believe would help their municipality during this current legislative cycle,” Martin wrote in the ruling.
Wyatt Emmerich, president of Emmerich Newspapers, which owns the Clarksdale Press Register, said in an interview that he will challenge the judge’s order at a hearing next week. Emmerich said the editorial was straightforward criticism of the city council not appropriately giving notice about the special meeting.
“I’ve been in this business for five decades and I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Mr. Emmerich said in an interview.
He also said the editorial was clearly free speech protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Chuck Espy, the Democratic mayor of Clarksdale, told The New York Times that the opinion piece was filled with “malicious lies.”
“The only thing we’re asking for in city government is to simply write the truth, good or bad,” Espy said. “And I’m very thankful that the judge agreed to impose a T.R.O. against a rogue newspaper that insisted on telling lies against the municipality.”
The court battle is the latest in what has become a longstanding conflict between the Press Register and Clarksdale city officials. In 2023, Emmerich accused Mayor Espy of offering him $30,000 to fire his publisher Floyd Ingram.
“Now, he’s on a jihad to get rid of a very competent publisher in Clarksdale and even personally offered to pay me $30,000 if I would fire him,” Emmerich said in March of 2023. “I don’t think that’s ever happened to me in my 35 years as president of Emmerich Newspapers.”
The judge’s ruling sparked a dust storm of criticism from press advocates in Mississippi and nationwide. Adam Steinbaugh, a First Amendment lawyer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, blasted the lawsuit and restraining order with a public statement on Thursday:
“The city of Clarksdale, Mississippi, thinks it knows better than the Founders. Clarksdale asked a court to order a local newspaper to remove an editorial asking why the city was not being more transparent about a proposed tax increase. As a result of the city’s lawsuit, a court ordered the Clarksdale Press Register to delete the online editorial.
That’s unconstitutional. In the United States, the government can’t determine what opinions may be shared in the public square. A free society does not permit governments to sue newspapers for publishing editorials.
FIRE is exploring all options to aid the Press Register in defending these core expressive rights.”
The National Press Club also took to social media to condemn the lawsuit and ruling:
WASHINGTON, February 20 – National Press Club President @MikeBalsamo1 today issued the following statement after a judge ordered a Mississippi newspaper, The @Press_Register, to delete an editorial that criticized government officials.
— National Press Club (@PressClubDC) February 20, 2025
The Mississippi Press Association also took exception to the ruling.
“We fully support the rights of the Clarksdale Press Register and all of our members to report on the business of local government and to offer editorial comment on their opinion pages,” MPA President George R. Turner said. “We support the Clarksdale newspaper’s efforts to seek relief in this case and to have a terrible decision reversed.”
Arguments from both sides will be heard by a judge during a court hearing scheduled for Feb. 27.
