Is Governor DeSantis Dimming Florida’s Bright Open Records Laws?

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Florida’s sunshine is famous not only because of its sunny beach days but also because it has one of the country’s strongest laws about public meetings and records.

Unfortunately, some changes have made the impact of these laws weaker. People are worried that this year could be the worst for transparency in Florida–the state where Sunshine Law was born!

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who might be planning to run for president, is pushing an agenda that will make it harder for people to find out what politicians are doing or to talk freely about them. This is the first time something like this has ever happened in Florida! DeSantis wants to keep some government records a secret and make it so that people can’t criticize public figures without facing punishment.

Florida’s government controlled by the Republican party is doing things to limit people from getting information. As the meeting began last week, lots of bills were passed that would make it harder for people to find out about what a government is up to.

Barbara Petersen, who has been tracking Florida’s public access laws for 30 years said, “it seems like the state of sunshine will soon be in danger.”

Governor DeSantis is probably going to run for president. He really likes to pick battles with people who are against the Republican party, like health professionals, leaders in school and business, and reporters.

Donald Trump, a famous former President and someone from the same state as him, has always been quite critical of the press. He usually calls American media “the enemy of the people” which is something many Republicans support since they think the mainstream media favours Democrats more than them.

Florida is not well known for being a place where reporters and anyone else can look into government documents to get an understanding of what their elected leaders are deciding.

Since 1909, any person living in Florida has the right to look at government records. The state also made it so public meetings have to be open to everyone in 1967. Then, 1992 rolled around and Floridians voted for a special constitutional amendment allowing all people access to both records and meetings. Finally, ten years later, another vote added an extra amendment making it difficult for laws that stop people from seeing the records or attending the meetings from passing in the future.

In 2002, Florida newspapers began celebrating a day called “Sunshine Sunday” to show the important of allowing public access to government information. Later on, this one day event grew into an entire week known as Sunshine Week celebrated by media and organizations who cared about freedom of speech all around the country.

This year, different governments are trying out various plans. Some of these plans involve hiding government secrets from people and some are set up to make it easier for them to watch what the government is doing. Right now, the most focus on this topic is in Florida because Governor DeSantis has made some strong comments about the press.

Last month, DeSantis held an online “panel” to try and get people to back his plan. This plan will make it easier to take legal action against anyone who posts something untrue about public officials or employees on the internet.

At the end of the gathering, he said: “If you spread false information about someone that you didn’t even check if it’s true, then you should be punished for it. Hopefully, more places in our nation will do this.”

Florida’s Governor, DeSantis, wants to change a law made back in 1964 that protected newspapers or news outlets from being sued for libel. His new legislation means that if someone is a public figure, it doesn’t need to be proven that the allegedly defamatory statements were published with the knowledge of them being false or exhibiting a careless attitude towards its accuracy.

The new laws would mean that people making anonymous statements in news stories are automatically assumed to be wrong. And, saying something bad about a person based on their race, gender or sexuality could be seen as an illegal statement.

According Petersen, these rules could stop people from speaking freely.

Republican state Rep. Alex Andrade, who is introducing the bill, said it’s his way to try and fix the problems caused by a certain law. Mr. Andrade believes that this new bill will allow people to pursue justice in Florida courts if they’ve been wrongfully harmed by someone else’s statement. Besides this, there are other policies from the DeSantis administration causing worries for media organizations.

Back in the beginning of this year, a court in Florida ruled that Governor DeSantis could keep private some records related to his choice for who should be part of the state Supreme Court. This ruling is now being examined by very important news organizations and it will be taken to another court soon.

The Constitution of Florida and the United States do not mention something called executive privilege. However, courts have said that a president is allowed to keep certain documents private in order to protect the secret advice they get while making decisions. On top of that, governors from Oklahoma, Tennessee and Washington have also used this executive privilege before.

A rule by Governor DeSantis has caused some people to have a harder time getting access to public records. A news station called WKMG reported that when people try to get documents from certain state organizations, the governor’s office needs to take a look before they can be released, which can sometimes cause them to be delayed for weeks or even months.

Protests at the Capitol are now more limited. A new rule that took effect on March 1st says outdoor demonstrations at the Capitol Complex can only happen with permission from state agencies, the Legislature, or the judiciary. The displays cannot include any violent or creepy images that might shock people in the community.

The State of Florida is limiting how much information can be shared about certain people in government. This started before the current governor, DeSantis, took office but has become even worse since then. In 2019, they made it illegal to share some personal details about public officials and last year, DeSantis signed a law to prevent people from finding out who was being considered for college presidencies.

This year, over fifty bills have been proposed to make government records secret. This can hide the travel plans of Governor DeSantis even after he has already gone on his trip.

A bill was made this year that would mean anyone who is paid to post things about the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, cabinet members or officials from the Legislature will have to regularly tell the state about it. Though DeSantis says he doesn’t agree with this bill.

Bobby Block, from the First Amendment Foundation (a group that supports access to public records), says that laws which allow us to find out information about our government are being weakened. He describes it as “chiseling away” at these laws – taking away pieces of them bit by bit and also in larger chunks. This is different from how things used to be.

Two reporters, Anthony Izaguirre and Steve Peoples, helped create this news report.