A bill that would have required bloggers who write about the governor or state lawmakers to register with the state government or face fines of up to $2,500 “per report” is now in limbo, but the fact it was even introduced worries free speech advocates.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders this week came out in opposition to Senate Bill 1316, which would have required bloggers who are paid to write about elected state officials, including the governor and lawmakers, to register with the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics. State Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) authored the bill, which would have exempted newspaper reporters and those working for “similar publications.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called the bill an affront to the First Amendment and freedom of the press.
“It is difficult to imagine a legislative proposal more fundamentally at odds with our nation’s founding spirit than requiring citizens and journalists to register their publications with the government under pain of fines,” the advocacy group said in a statement.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, also panned the bill in a Twitter post.
“The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government is insane,” he said last week. “It is an embarrassment that it is a Republican state legislator in Florida who introduced a bill to that effect. He should withdraw it immediately.”
Bobby Block, the executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, said the blogger bill was now moribund.
“Right now the word is that (Florida Speaker of the House Paul) Renner is dead-set opposed to it, and it’s never going to get any hearing in the House,” Block told the Florida Record. “So it's in limbo. It's going to die.”
He called the legislation an extreme overreach of the legislative process.
“It was more than unconstitutional,” Block said. “It was downright un-American."
He also expressed concern about what such legislation reveals about the current mind-set of Florida’s political leadership.
“What's worrying to me is that it does kind of give an idea of intent, and the intent in my opinion is to silence critics,” Block said. “And if they're not silenced, then (the goal is) to intimidate them and bring them to heel."