[Dialogue] Wolf As Underdog: Indy Media Journalist Needs Protection

Thu Feb 15 17:40:58 EST 2007

AlterNet

Wolf As Underdog: Indy Media Journalist Needs Protection

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Posted on February 14, 2007, Printed on February 15, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/48050/

Josh Wolf, videographer and blogger, is now the journalist imprisoned
longest in U.S. history for refusing to comply with a subpoena. He has been
locked up in federal prison for close to six months.

In July 2005, Wolf was covering a San Francisco protest against the G-8
Summit in Scotland (the G-8 stands for the Group of Eight industrialized
nations: Britain, France, Russia, Germany, the U.S., Japan, Italy and
Canada). He posted video to the Web and sold some video to a local
broadcast-news outlet. The authorities wanted him to turn over the original
tapes and to testify. He refused.

In a recent court filing, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan says it's only in Wolf's
"imagination that he is a journalist."

The Society of Professional Journalists must be equally imaginative. Their
Northern California chapter named Josh Wolf Journalist of the Year for 2006,
and in March will give him the James Madison Freedom of Information Award.
"Josh's commitment to a free and unfettered press deserves profound
respect," SPJ National President Christine Tatum said.

The SPJ is also honoring San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada
and Lance Williams, who are facing prison for refusing to reveal who leaked
grand-jury testimony about steroid use in baseball. Williams and
Fainaru-Wada remain free pending appeal.

The problem for Wolf? Independence. As Wolf observes, there is "definitely a
divergence between how the government's handled my situation as an
independent journalist and how they've dealt with the corporate media, which
have also been found in civil contempt."

The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the
freedom ... of the press." By forcing journalists to hand over tapes, notes
and other material, and to testify, the government is making just such a
law. Whistle-blowers and others in dangerous situations will no longer come
forward to provide information to reporters if they think their names will
be divulged. Journalists must be free to protect their sources and to report
the truth if our democracy is to function.

Wolf's lawyer, Martin Garbus, one of the nation's leading First Amendment
attorneys, says the government has done an end run around California's
shield law, which would have guaranteed Wolf protection. The authorities
called on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF, which moved the case to
federal court, where no shield law exists (as reporters in the Valerie Plame
case discovered).

The grand jury is investigating whether arson was attempted on a San
Francisco police car, though the squad car was not damaged beyond a broken
taillight. A police officer was injured after the squad car he was in was
driven into the protest march (that case was investigated then dropped by
the local district attorney); however, Wolf insists he was not videotaping
either incident.

What is clear is that by focusing on the alleged attempted arson of the car,
the JTTF can assert jurisdiction, as federal anti-terror dollars, they say,
paid for part of the car. With these legalistic jurisdictional acrobatics,
Wolf is stripped of California shield-law protections, and remains locked up
without charge until he turns over his tape and submits to the Bush
administration inquisitors.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief in his support,
pointing out how JTTFs across the country, under the guise of investigating
"terrorism," are targeting anti-war groups and compiling databases of
law-abiding citizens critical of the Bush administration.

Wolf, who is 24 years old, is staying healthy in prison, reading a lot and
learning from other inmates. He mails entries to be posted to his blog at
joshwolf.net. Garbus expects him to remain in prison at least until the
grand jury expires in July.

Freedom of the press means freeing journalists to do their work. Congress
can insure that by passing a federal shield law.

(c) 2007 Amy Goodman

Distributed by King Features Syndicate 

Amy Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program,
Democracy Now! 

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