(Freelance journalist and anarchist Josh Wolf has refused to turn over videotapes of a protest being investigated by a federal grand jury. Online Journalism Review has written about his case; you can read more in Wikipedia. In December I promised to write about his case every Friday until he is freed. Spread the word. – Tom Abate aka MiniMediaGuy).
Two weeks ago I mixed things up a bit by letting my brother, a New Jersey attorney, use this space to argue that Josh Wolf was justly jailed. Last Friday I replied to the effect that he should never have been imprisoned.Â
I started thedebate by saying I wouldn’t argue that Josh deserved any special treatment as a journalist. My position is that no citizen should be imprisoned on such flimsy pretext as has he.Â
But Cody Molica, a writer and legal researcher living in Santa Rosa, refused to concede the jailed journalist issue. He wrote in to say:
“So Josh Wolf is not a journalist? That’s interesting because the Society of Professional Journalists which is the longest established union of journalists in this country has awarded Wolf the Journalist of the Year Award . . . Josh Wolf sold this video tape to three of our local television stations for $500 each, i.e. he was not just a spectator but an independent journalist. (he has been doing this for a while)”