Josh’s case will be covered in part two of a four part PBS Frontline series by Lowell Bergman tltled News War. We will be organizing house parties around the country to coincide with the airing of the episode. Parties will also be provided with a copy of the Kevin Epps film “The United States vs. Josh Wolf” to show at the event.Please consider getting together a group of your friends and colleagues and host a House party on Feb 20. Please contact andy.blue at yahoo.com for more information.houseparty.jpg
The Revolution Will Be Televised » Host or Attend a House Party for Josh Feb 20
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One reply on “Important Information on Jailed Videoblogger, Josh Wolf”
This is some fucked up shit. I hadn’t heard about this before. What I’m wondering is, if they can put his ass in jail, what is keeping them from just going to his house and seizing the video/computer equipment? I mean would that be any more violation of his rights. I was thinking about coming back to the US, but now… Not so sure.
I found the editorial below from the San Fran Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/03/EDG0RK9T7T1.DTL
JOSH WOLF is an imperfect martyr for freedom of the press. The 24-year-old freelance journalist from San Francisco makes no pretense of being fair and balanced. He is a self-proclaimed anarchist. Advocacy, not objectivity, appears to be his driving motivation. “The revolution will be televised,” his Web site promises.
But the First Amendment was not crafted just to protect the mainstream media. One of its clear aims was to allow journalists to do their jobs without government regulation or interference.
It’s hard to think of a more basic measure of a free country than the ability of people to demonstrate against government policies — and the freedom of journalists to edit and disseminate their accounts of such events.
Wolf was recording a demonstration by a group of anarchists on July 8, 2005. The demonstration turned unruly, with some of the protesters vandalizing buildings and scuffling with police. Wolf posted some of the videos on his Web site.
Federal prosecutors are demanding that Wolf turn over the outtakes — claiming to be specifically interested in the attempted burning of a police car.
Wolf’s refusal to turn over his unpublished material would seem to be covered by the state’s shield law.
However, federal prosecutors are arguing that the sliding of a burning mattress under a police cruiser constitutes a federal crime because the San Francisco Police Department receives money from the U.S. government. Yes, the argument is a stretch.
But the really ominous element of the government’s argument is the notion that a journalist can be compelled to turn over raw material — be it notes or video outtakes — at the government’s whim. If that standard can apply to Josh Wolf, it can be used against CNN, NBC, Fox News or any independent journalist who is conducting an investigation or trying to record a chaotic event. Journalists are not agents of the government.
This case comes at a particularly precarious time for the First Amendment. The Bush administration has become increasingly aggressive about pursuing and prosecuting leaks — including The Chronicle’s publication of grand jury testimony about an investigation into performance-enhancing drugs at the highest level of sports. On Tuesday, a federal court cleared the way for prosecutors to inspect the telephone records of two New York Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources.
Today, Wolf sits in a federal prison cell, facing the possibility of staying there until the grand jury’s term expires in July 2007.
He may not have the clout or journalism credentials of some of the other government targets, but Josh Wolf is no less entitled to First Amendment protection. Each day he remains incarcerated represents another small dent in this nation’s basic freedoms.