Around New England

Rhode Island Democrats Propose Fining Media Outlets For ‘Selectively Reporting’ Facts

March 5, 2020

A group of Rhode Island state senators wants to fine media organizations for how they report.

The “Stop Guilt by Accusation Act” (S.2750) would penalize media for “selectively reporting” facts. 

The bill includes this argument:  “The state has a compelling interest to compel the press to promote the objective truth for the sake of the viability of democracy and for the safety, health, and welfare of our communities and in keeping with the spirit of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and to stop the press from serving as a slander machine.” 

Media outlets that the government determined violated this rule would be fined up to $10,000. 

Steven Brown, the executive director of the ACLU’s Rhode Island chapter, slammed the bill. “The only realistic effect of this legislation would be to deeply chill legitimate reporting of the news,″ Brown told the Providence Journal. “Fortunately, the First Amendment prevents the government and litigants from controlling the news as this bill would let them do. These types of efforts to control the press have absolutely no place in a democratic society.”

The sponsors of the bill are Rhode Island state Senators Sandra Cano (D-Pawtucket), Elizabeth Crowley (D-Central Falls), Ana Quezada (D-Providence), and Harold Metts (D-Providence).