Florida cops have busted three
Orlando Weekly ad-side employees on charges of promoting prostitution for their sales of classifieds to escort services. The newspaper -- a longtime critic of the
city's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation for its targeting of adult-oriented businesses -- also stands accused of racketeering and 17 counts of aiding in the commission of prostitution.
Officials claim the newspaper assisted escort services to design ads that help shield them from law enforcement. But publisher Rick Schreiber calls the arrests "an outrageous abuse of process and
an attempt to censor the First Amendment rights of a newspaper that has reported critically on the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation."
MBI Director Bill Lutz claims the arrests
have nothing to do with freedom of speech, or lack thereof. "I don't see a First Amendment issue here," he says. "This is strictly an advertising company making money off of prostitution." The police
say the newspaper has earned about $2.3 million over the past five years from prostitution-related ads.
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