Pensacola News Journal

Telling the truth should not expose you to costly lawsuits

If newspapers cannot write stories that are accurate and true without risking losing millions of dollars in a lawsuit because someone believes the story is unflattering, or makes them look bad, it is the public that suffers in the end.

That is an appropriate subject today -- Sunshine Sunday. This is the day each year in which news organizations throughout the country talk about the importance of open government, and emphasize to readers that the right to know the truth is the right not just of the media, but of any citizen.

In that light, we can’t think of anything more important than protecting the right to publish the truth -- and the right of American citizens to read it.

While newspapers such as the Pensacola News Journal, backed by its corporate parent, Gannett, have the will and the resources to defend themselves from lawsuits, many newspapers do not.

That is especially true for many smaller, independent community newspapers that can be ruined simply by the cost of defending a lawsuit against a well-heeled opponent. The News Journal has gone to great expense to defend itself from a “false-light” lawsuit -- a suit in which the plaintiff, road contractor Joe Anderson, admitted upfront that the newspaper’s stories were accurate in every detail. He just didn’t like how they made him look.

We understand how damaging it is not just to newspapers, but to the public’s right to know, if newspapers can be intimidated for publishing the truth.

In the News Journal’s case, a jury awarded $18.5 million to Anderson. The verdict was overturned unanimously by a panel of the First District Court of Appeal. An appeal is pending to the Florida Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled whether it will hear the case. And we thank them.

The importance of this is that it isn’t a libel case, in which the truth or falsity of the newspaper’s stories is important. This case was brought under the false-light doctrine, in which someone can sue because they don’t like the way they were portrayed.

Efforts have been made in the Florida Legislature to do away with this doctrine under the belief that suing people for telling the truth is fundamentally wrong. This year, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, have filed legislation to accomplish that. We thank them.

“Have we gotten to the point where we can be sued for saying the truth?” Gaetz said. “I think we take this protection way too far when there can be lawsuits because somebody feels they’ve been cast in an accurate, but unflattering, light.”

As a former editor of a weekly newspaper, Gaetz understands freedom of speech issues in regard to the news media -- especially for smaller newspapers. But he also has concerns that the false light doctrine could impact small businesses.

“As a businessman I am asked to make accurate statements about individuals and businesses all the time,” he said. “Do people have the right to sue me for telling the truth, if it might be embarrassing?”

On Sunshine Sunday, we believe it is a good time to stand up for the right to tell the truth.

Reproduced courtesy of the Pensacola News Journal.
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