Alaska Considering Ban on Broadcast of 911 Calls

Here is the latest shot across the First Amendment bow for news outlets. Alaska's state legislature wants to ban the use of 911 tapes by broadcast outlets, and the Internet.

The Alaska state legislature this week began debate on the measure that would include a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Proponents of the bill “cited the Alaska example of 13-year-old Petra Davis, attacked in 2008 by a bear during a 24-hour trail bike race in Anchorage's Far North Bicentennial Park. The audio of her call was broadcast nationally by NBC's Today Show, which had Davis and her rescuers on the program,” the Daily News reported. “The broadcast introduction to her call described her as being heroic as she desperately communicated with dispatchers.”

The truth: it would be another way to stop news outlets from reporting key elements of a story. Allow them to use their news judgment, not have to adhere to a government restriction on freedom of the press.