Oregon House OKs bill barring broadcast of 911 calls

By The Associated Press

05.02.01

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SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon House yesterday approved a bill that bars radio and television stations from broadcasting recordings of emergency 911 calls.

The measure, sent to the Senate on a 55-5 vote, would make audio recordings of emergency calls exempt from the state public-records law. Transcripts of the recordings would remain available to the public and news media.

Backers of the bill said 911 callers, sometimes distraught, should be protected against their conversations being exploited by being publicly broadcast. But opponents say the measure contradicts the purpose of the open-records law.

Exceptions in House Bill 2436 would allow a recording to be released if a caller consented or if it was determined, under a legal appeals process already in the records law, that the public interest outweighed the caller's right to privacy "in the particular instance."

Rep. Steve March, D-Portland, said the exceptions balance free-press rights with protecting "families from reliving a tragedy."

He said that while broadcasters say the bill erodes the public-records law, the statewide 911 emergency call system didn't exist when the law was passed in 1973.

Rep. Bill Witt, R-Portland, said people should "have a rightful expectation of privacy when they make a 911 call."

The measure could protect callers, he said, from retaliation by neighbors or others who might obtain recordings to find out who complained about them to authorities.

But Rep. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, a former television reporter, said he had never in more than 20 years in broadcasting heard of a problem due to release of a 911 recording.

He said release of recordings had disclosed mishandling of calls and that the Legislature has continually carved loopholes into the records law.

"In all of these exemptions, taken together, we are pulling down the curtain on Oregon's open government," Hass said.

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