[Imc-chicago-audio] First Blogger Jailed After Defying Court Orders

[Kelly Pierce]

For those who haven't seen this, the first blogger has been jailed for 
refusing to disclose sources or unpublished material.  Additional media 
reports later in the week say that former New York Times reporter Judith 
Miller was turned away by guards at the California federal prison where Josh 
Wolf is in custody.  Prison officials later said that visits to Josh Wolf 
from journalists are not allowed.

In addition to publishing on his web log, Josh Wolf was a journalist for San 
Francisco Indymedia.


I have always thought it was good practice to delete or discard unpublished 
material.  with information these days being digital and huge hard drives, 
it is tempting to save everything.  However, if something is not of value 
for publication, broadcast, or archival purposes, it likely won't be of 
value in the future.  I wonder if Josh had maintained the practice of 
discarding unpublished material if he would still face the demands that he 
is now.

Kelly


New York Times

    August 2, 2006

    Blogger Jailed After Defying Court Orders

By JESSE McKINLEY

    SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 - A freelance journalist and blogger was jailed
on Tuesday after refusing to turn over video he took at an anticapitalist
protest here last summer and after refusing to testify before a grand jury
looking into accusations that crimes were committed at the protest.

    The freelancer, Josh Wolf, 24, was taken into custody just before noon
after a hearing in front of Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court.
Found in contempt, Mr. Wolf was later moved to a federal prison in Dublin,
Calif., and could be imprisoned until next summer, when the grand jury
term expires, said his lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes.

    Earlier this year, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Mr. Wolf to testify
before a grand jury and turn over video from the demonstration, held in
the Mission District on July 8, 2005. The protest, tied to a Group of 8
meeting of world economic leaders in Scotland, ended in a clash between
demonstrators and the San Francisco police, with one officer sustaining a
fractured skull.

    A smoke bomb or a firework was also put under a police car, and
investigators are looking into whether arson was attempted on a
government-financed vehicle.

    Mr. Wolf, who posted some of the edited video on his Web site,
www.joshwolf.net, and sold some of it to local television stations, met
with investigators, who wanted to see the raw video. But Mr. Wolf refused
to hand over the tapes, arguing that he had the right as a journalist to
shield his sources.

    On Tuesday, Judge Alsup disagreed, ruling that the grand jury "has a
legitimate need" to see what Mr. Wolf filmed.

    Mr. Wolf, a recent college graduate, is the latest journalist to face
prison time for refusing to cooperate with federal investigators. Last
year, the New York Times reporter Judith Miller served nearly three months
in jail after refusing to divulge her sources in the investigation of the
leak of a covert C.I.A. agent's name.

    Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of
Minnesota, said that although the jailing of journalists had become more
common, Mr. Wolf's case was the first she had heard of in which a blogger
had been pursued and eventually jailed by federal authorities.

    "There is a tendency on the part of the prosecutors to go aggressively
after people not perceived to have a big gun behind them," Ms. Kirtley
said. "They are the most vulnerable links in the chain."

    While California has a so-called shield law meant to protect
journalists and their sources, no such law exists at the federal level.
Even if there was such a law, Ms. Kirtley said, it is unclear whether a
blogger and freelancer would fall under it.

    According to his Web site, Mr. Wolf has been active in his defense,
holding news conferences and posting interviews and newspaper articles on
his site. On Tuesday, however, the site's last message read, "This blog
will be updated sometime shortly after my hearing ... wish me luck guys!"

    Mr. Wolf has attracted supporters, including the American Civil
Liberties Union and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which
introduced a resolution objecting to the federal government's role in the
investigation. The Society of Professional Journalists contributed to Mr.
Wolf's legal defense fund.

    Mr. Fuentes said he had already prepared an appeal and would file it
immediately. He also planned to ask for bail, though he was not certain
where the money to post it would come from. "His mother has been trying to
fund-raise," Mr. Fuentes said. "But he might lose his job."