Hatfield Wants Explanation After Reporter Arrested, Notes Seized

Sen. Mark Hatfield said Friday he wants a detailed account of the circumstances that led to the arrest of a newspaper reporter and confiscation of his notebook at a logging protest site in Oregon.

Hatfield, R-Ore., also said in a letter to Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas he wants an explanation of the agency’s rules governing media access to protest situations on national forests.

Reporter Jeff Wright and photographer Anthony Robert La Penna of The Register-Guard of Eugene, Ore., were arrested and charged with trespassing a week ago near a barricade environmentalists erected across a road to block access to the Warner Creek timber sale.