VivirLatino

SF blogger becomes longest held journalist

17:14 H | Topics: Activism - Blogs - Controversia - Justice - Media - San Francisco

We get a lot of comments on this blog when people don't like what we write, saying that "real journalists" would try harder to show both sides, check facts more diligently, not be biased, be more objective, etc. etc. I chuckle when I read these comments because neither Maegan or myself think we are traditional "journalists" and we don't pretend to objective either.

We are a lot of other things, among them blogger, writer, artist, business people, parent, activist and a host of other words can describe us. We're not journalists in the traditional sense. We are regular people who care enough about something (Latino issues) to post about it every day, and state our opinions. BUT, we are in fact the media. Right?

If a controversy that has unfolded right here in San Francisco is to be a case study on that statement, the government probably doesn't share that sentiment. Today San Francisco blogger Josh Wolf becomes the journalist (there's that word again) who has spent the most time in prison for refusing to hand over information to the U.S. Government. While his friends and family held a press conference at our City Hall this afternoon to rally support for his release, Josh sat in a Federal prison in Dublin, California, all because the government doesn't buy that he deserves the journalist's right to withhold information.

I met Josh Wolf once a couple of years ago when we were both trying out to be a part of Al Gore's cable channel endeavor. Neither of us were chosen; indeed no one out of the hundreds of us were selected as IndTV morphed into what you now know as the more mainstream CurrentTV. Josh seemed to be the most fervent of the group, organizing us to mobilize ourselves as independent media makers even though the cable gods didn't want us. He seemed like a nice and colorful guy (I think I faintly remember him running for an SF Supervisor position), and I haven't seen him since.

Now, as a blogger, I am surprised to find that Josh, a fellow blogger, is a victim of the never-ending question of whether or not we are the media. Josh refused to give up a video (see it) he made to federal authorities upon subpoena and that's where this all began:

Wolf brought his video camera to a July 2005 Mission District protest against an economic summit taking place in Scotland. A police officer was hit in the head and suffered a fractured skull, and a foam cushion under a patrol car was set on fire -- the basis for the federal investigation, because the car was partly funded with a federal grant to the Police Department.

Part of Wolf's video was shown on local television, but a Joint Terrorism Task Force of FBI agents and police sought the entire tape and Wolf refused, saying he would not act as the government's eyes and ears. In court, his lawyers said the tape showed no evidence of a crime and invited Alsup to look at the outtakes, but the judge declined.

Josh has vowed to stay in jail rather than comply with the Grand Jury subpoena. Attorneys for the U.S. government think Josh needs to stay in jail longer to figure out that he "isn't a journalist":

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Finigan said in a Jan. 29 court filing. He called Wolf "delusional'' and said additional time in prison might help him realize that he was not a genuine journalist, but "simply a person with a video camera who happened to record some public events.''

Wow...and you thought this kind of stuff didn't happen in San Francisco. But how do "real journalists" fare in a similar situation? Well, pretty much the same it seems. Two reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle also face similar charges:

Meanwhile, two Chronicle reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, face possible prison sentences of up to 18 months for refusing to identify their sources of grand jury transcripts that they quoted in articles in 2004 about athletes' steroid use. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing March 7 on appeals by the reporters and the newspaper, which faces fines of $1,000 a day for refusing to provide documents that might identify the sources.

Josh is only 24 and has now spent 169 days in a Federal prison. His mom, Liz Wolf-Spada, is spearheading the campaign for his release.

If you would like to help Josh's cause, there are many ways to do so. There is a Wiki set up where you can send him letters or books, or write to a member of Congress on his behalf.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can attend a benefit tonight at the House of Shields at 8 pm.

Via / SF Chronicle and JoshWolf.net

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