[IMC-Video] San Francisco Journalist Jailed Over Protest Footage

[a. mark liiv]

  Journalist Jailed Over Protest Footage

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5988543,00.html

Wednesday August 2, 2006 3:46 AM

AP Photo CAPS107

By DAVID KRAVETS

Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A freelance video journalist was jailed Tuesday 
for refusing to give a grand jury his unsold footage from a 2005 
protest in which anarchists were suspected of vandalizing a police 
car.

Joshua Wolf, 24, could remain behind bars until next summer, when the 
grand jury investigating the incident is due to expire.

Wolf had sold footage of the protest to San Francisco television 
stations and posted it on his Web site. Investigators are seeking 
portions of his videotape that haven't been broadcast.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said there is no federal law 
shielding journalists from participating in grand jury 
investigations. The judge sided with prosecutors who suspect the 
footage may reveal who was behind the melee, part of an anarchist-led 
protest over the G-8 international economic conference last year in 
Scotland. A San Francisco police officer also was injured.

``This is direct evidence of what happened,'' Alsup said.

Alsup said he wasn't jailing Wolf to punish him. ``The purpose of 
this is to get you to change your mind,'' the judge said as U.S. 
marshals removed Wolf from the courtroom.

Wolf's lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes, said that relinquishing the footage 
to a grand jury would be tantamount to his client becoming ``an arm 
of the government.'' Because of the subpoena, Fuentes said, the 
underground groups Wolf chronicles are denying him access.

The American Civil Liberties Union said federal authorities are 
disregarding California's shield law, which generally allows 
journalists to decline to divulge unpublished material to state 
authorities. That shield, however, does not attach to federal 
investigations.

Although the incident involved the San Francisco police, federal 
authorities are investigating because the it involves the destruction 
of federally funded property.

``We're taking the position that the government hasn't shown it has a 
connection to a legitimate federal interest here,'' ACLU attorney 
Alan Schlosser said after the two-hour hearing.