August 2, 2006

Leftist Blogger Jailed For Refusing to Provide Video to Grand Jury

The New York Times is up with a story, Blogger Jailed After Defying Court Orders, about a videoblogger who is facing jail time "after refusing to turn over video he took at an anticapitalist protest [in San Francisco] last summer and after refusing to testify before a grand jury looking into accusations that crimes were committed at the protest."

According to the story, freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf, 24, is asserting he has a right as a journalist to protect his sources. I'd agree with him on that. But video isn't "sources." It's video. I think he should turn it over.

Here's part of the NYT story:

The freelancer, Josh Wolf, 24, was taken into custody just before noon after a hearing in front of Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court. Found in contempt, Mr. Wolf was later moved to a federal prison in Dublin, Calif., and could be imprisoned until next summer, when the grand jury term expires, said his lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Mr. Wolf to testify before a grand jury and turn over video from the demonstration, held in the Mission District on July 8, 2005. The protest, tied to a Group of 8 meeting of world economic leaders in Scotland, ended in a clash between demonstrators and the San Francisco police, with one officer sustaining a fractured skull. A smoke bomb or a firework was also put under a police car, and investigators are looking into whether arson was attempted on a government-financed vehicle.

Mr. Wolf, who posted some of the edited video on his Web site, www.joshwolf.net, and sold some of it to local television stations, met with investigators, who wanted to see the raw video. But Mr. Wolf refused to hand over the tapes, arguing that he had the right as a journalist to shield his sources.

On Tuesday, Judge Alsup disagreed, ruling that the grand jury “has a legitimate need” to see what Mr. Wolf filmed.

Update: Ding Ding! My suspicions were right. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Wolf "describes himself on his Web site as an activist and anarchist."

In other words, Wolf isn't really a "freelance journalist and blogger" trying to protect his sources - he's trying to protect his fellow anarchists. Doesn't that make him an accessory-after-the-fact?

Update: Jeff Jarvis explores the ramifications of the Wolf case, though he blindly accepts that Wolf is a "journalist" trying to protect his sources rather than an anarchist trying to protect his friends. In essence, Wolf shot video of his ideological friends committing possible crimes, and now is claiming to have a journalists' right to conceal the evidence.