The New Yorker:

Two bills in the Republican-controlled state legislature propose radical alteration to libel laws.

By Fabio Bertoni 

This past Monday, Florida’s Republican state senator Jason Brodeur filed a piece of legislation called “An act relating to defamation and related actions.” This filing followed the introduction two weeks ago, in the state’s House of Representatives, of legislation similarly called “An act relating to defamation, false light, and unauthorized publication of name or likenesses.” Despite the demure titles, both bills, in fact, propose radical alterations to Florida’s libel law, which would make it significantly more difficult for journalists to report on government procedures—including public litigation and government hearings—and also make it more difficult to defend against litigation brought by public figures.

The bills were preceded by a somewhat bizarre live-streamed talk-show-style discussion that the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, had in early February with several people who have been involved, either as plaintiffs or as their lawyers, in bringing suits against “mainstream” media companies. The panelists and DeSantis decried the unfairness of the “actual malice” standard, as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1964 case New York Times Company v. Sullivan, and the media’s use of anonymous sources. The media, they claimed, were hiding behind these protections to intentionally destroy and smear people’s reputations.

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