Fla. governor questioned about bill making lawsuits easier

ORANGE PARK, FLA. — Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded $3,000 checks to teachers at Ridgeview High School in Clay County Thursday morning.

The teachers went through Florida’s new civics training course for teachers. The first 20,000 teachers to complete the program receive the bonus, DeSantis announced.

After he presented the teachers with their bonus checks, First Coast News questioned the governor on legislation (HB 991) he supports that would change Florida’s defamation law and make it easier to sue and be sued for what you say. Some First Amendment advocates are concerned the measure would chill free speech, particularly for people on social media, bloggers, and people at public meetings as well as encourage frivolous lawsuits.

First Coast News asked how his administration would keep that from happening. 

“I don’t think it’s gonna cause much of a difference in terms of free speech,” DeSantis said. “I do think it may cause some people to not want to put out things that are false that are smearing somebody’s reputation.”

The proposed legislation would make it significantly easier for media companies to be sued for defamation because it would treat anonymous sources as “presumptively false.” The bill would also require the registration of bloggers who make money writing about elected officials.

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“Corporate media outlets have relied on anonymous sources to smear people,” DeSantis said. “I think that is something that is fundamentally wrong.”

DeSantis initially addressed the proposed bill during a roundtable Feb. 7 that included panelists who claimed to be “victims” of misconduct by the media.