17 November 2006

Alert

Federal appeal court refuses rehearing in case of blogger Josh Wolf


Incident details

Josh Wolf

journalist(s)

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(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned as "absurd inflexibility" the decision of a federal appeal court to refuse to rehear the case of blogger Josh Wolf, who has been in prison since 18 September 2006 for refusing to hand over video footage shot at a demonstration that turned violent in July 2005. Wolf is therefore likely to remain in custody until July 2007, when a grand jury could decide to release him on bail.

"This young blogger does not represent any threat to national security, so keeping him in custody is a completely disproportionate step," the worldwide press freedom organisation said after the 16 November ruling.

"The judges seem to want to teach a lesson to Wolf, a young man whose insolence has exasperated them, when their role should be simply to interpret the law," it added.

For more information on this case: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18928



Source:

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

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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 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 Judge jails freelancer over videotape 2 August 2006 Journalist facing possible imprisonment for refusing to surrender video to judicial authorities 1 August 2006

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