By Craig Kopp
WUSF Public Media
On Tuesday, Gov. DeSantis called upon the legislature to adopt a measure that would make it easier to sue the press.
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to make it easier to sue media outlets for defamation.
But Florida’s First Amendment Foundation says that would have a chilling effect on free speech.
During a roundtable discussion in Hialeah Gardens on Tuesday, DeSantis called on the legislature to address the impacts of media defamation on the public.
“We’ve seen over the last generation legacy media outlets increasingly divorce themselves from the truth and instead try to elevate preferred narratives and partisan activism over reporting the facts,” DeSantis said in a news release. “When the media attacks me, I have a platform to fight back. When they attack everyday citizens, these individuals don’t have the adequate recourses to fight back.
“In Florida, we want to stand up for the little guy against these massive media conglomerates.”
In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that public figures must prove a media report is untrue and that it was distributed with malicious intent in order to win defamation and libel cases.