Blogger in jail longer than any journalist in history

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-blogger8feb08,0,903687.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Freelance videographer Josh Wolf in July defied a federal grand jury's order to hand over raw footage of anarchists clashing with police in San Francisco.

He said he was protected by the 1st Amendment. A federal judge said he was in contempt of court.

On Aug. 1, the 24-year-old blogger reported to the federal detention facility in Dublin, Calif. and has been there ever since — except for a brief period in September. As of Tuesday, he had been incarcerated longer than any journalist in modern U.S. history.

Wolf's mother, a third-grade teacher from Wrightwood, will be on Capitol Hill Thursday to lobby members of Congress to help free her son. Liz Wolf-Spada also plans to push for a federal shield law that would protect mainstream journalists as well as independent journalists and bloggers like her son.

"I'm asking that they treat an independent journalist the same way they treat the journalists who work for the Hearst Corp.," she said, referring to the company that owns the San Francisco Chronicle and other papers.

[nashville_brook]

1. KnR

[BayCityProgressive]

2. wow I hadn't heard this

[anotherdrew]

3. he's automaticly out the day the grand jury's term ends isn't he?

"The grand jury in Wolf's case, which is investigating an alleged arson attempt on a San Francisco police car, is scheduled to adjourn in July <'07>. But a prosecutor said in court papers last month that the term could be extended six months."

[Canuckistanian]

4. Are they going to have to license journalists now?

And who exactly gets to decide what constitutes a "free press" under the First Amendment?

I'm sure Tom Paine was like a blogger of his time, as were most journalists. They never went to journalism school or worked for a large organization dedicated to writing news.

I'd love to see a serious constitutional challenge on this point.

But I'm not holding my breath.

[Kagemusha]

5. What Wolf-Spada didn't mention is...

Even under a federal shield law there's plenty of situations where a reporter working for the SF Chronicle will very much indeed be dragged into court. Behold the litany of media people who stand to be dragged into the Libby case as Team Libby puts on its defense! I mean, OK if you wanna be treated like a journalist. But to then turn around and say, "But journalists should have immunity from testifying in general"...

Well, people might think that's a nice idea but that's currently known as contempt of court. Especially when dealing with a grand jury. I know there are people with a visceral dislike of the entire grand jury system but, nonetheless, it is a jury of citizens that are asked to make judgments about evidence brought before them, evidence which may or may not ever see the public or the inside of a courtroom. To spit at the system is to be in contempt of court. The 1st amendment doesn't protect people from that. (Esp. not after you lose your motions and appeals arguing you shouldn't have to cooperate)