2 August 2006

Alert

Judge jails freelancer over videotape


Incident details

Joshua Wolf

journalist(s)

(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a CPJ press release:

UNITED STATES: Judge jails freelancer over videotape

New York, August 2, 2006 - A U.S. judge in San Francisco ordered a video blogger to jail after holding him in contempt for refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a videotape of a 2005 protest. Ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ordered Joshua Wolf held without bail and denied a stay pending an appeal.

Wolf's tape documents clashes between demonstrators and San Francisco police during a June 2005 protest by anarchists over a Group of 8 economic conference. The grand jury is investigating possible criminal activity, including a protester attempting to burn a police vehicle. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed amicus briefs in support of Wolf, each arguing that he enjoyed common law protection.

Wolf's attorney, Jose Luis Fuentes, said his client will appeal the decision to deny bail to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Wolf could be jailed for up to 11 months, until the grand jury expires in July 2007.

Wolf, 24, sold footage of the protest to San Francisco television stations and posted it on his Web site, The Associated Press reported. Investigators are seeking the portions of his videotape that were not broadcast.

"We're extremely concerned by the jailing of journalist Joshua Wolf and are monitoring developments closely," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "While we recognize that Wolf has legal protections not available to journalists in many other parts of the world, his jailing is alarming precisely because democratic countries rarely take such a drastic step."

A note posted by the journalist's mother, Liz Wolf-Spada, on Wolf's blog (http://www.joshwolf.net/blog) reported today that he is in Dublin federal prison in the East Bay area of San Francisco.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom around the world.



Source:

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
USA
info (@) cpj.org
Phone: +1 212 465 1004
Fax: +1 212 465 9568
 

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More on this case

Freelance journalist Josh Wolf released after 224 days in prison 4 April 2007 Prosecutors claim imprisoned blogger Wolf is not a journalist, federal guidelines do not apply to his case 2 April 2007 Mediation fails to free blogger held for "contempt of court" 14 March 2007 Federal court rejects request for release of freelance video journalist; RSF reiterates call for a federal "shield law" 7 February 2007 Federal appeal court refuses rehearing in case of blogger Josh Wolf 17 November 2006 Prosecutors try to send blogger Josh Wolf back to prison 15 September 2006 Blogger freed after 30 days in jail; case still looms 4 September 2006 Journalist facing possible imprisonment for refusing to surrender video to judicial authorities 1 August 2006

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