SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 3, 2007) - Blogger and freelance journalist Josh Wolf, who has been held in federal prison for more than seven months for defying a grand jury subpoena to testify and turn over unaired video footage he shot of a G-8 summit protest rally turned violent in San Francisco in 2005, has been released from a jail in Dublin, CA, after reaching a deal Monday with prosecutors.
"Journalists absolutely have to remain independent of law enforcement. Otherwise, people will never trust journalists," Wolf told a reporter from The San Francisco Chronicle outside the prison gate after he walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution on Tuesday afternoon.
In a Chronicle photograph by Michael Maloney, Wolf can be seen leaving jail today escorted by two prison officials and followed by one of his lawyers, David Greene. Wolf is pushing a cart with his belongings, mostly books and letters, and is wearing a tee-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. Since last photographed when he returned to jail in September, Wolf has grown a long, black goatee.
Wolf's lawyers reached an agreement with a federal judge so that Wolf would not have to testify before a grand jury if he produced the video outtakes, and he would not have to identify people who are shown in his footage. The mediation to release Wolf had been going on for about six weeks, sources said.
Wolf posted the unaired videotape online on his Web site and gave it to the court to complete the agreement with the court, his lawyer said. Then U.S. District Judge William Alsup approved Wolf's release, which happened on Tuesday afternoon.
A statement from Wolf was posted on the Center for Media and Democracy Web site today. In it Wolf said, "It took 226 days, but it was worth every second to get what I wanted from day one, which is that I will not have to testify before the grand jury about the events at the protest or the identities of participants. The demand for my testimony before the grand jury was the true assault on my code of ethics and, as I have stated previously, there will be, and has been no compromise to this resolute principle."
The government's claim to Wolf's videotape has been that it was critical to their investigation of a protest that turned violent. The violence resulted in a San Francisco police officer's skull being fractured during a scuffle as protesters and unidentified marchers set tried to set fire to a police car. Because the police department receives federal funding, the arson is a potential felony. The videotape seen online on Wolf's Web site does not show anything of these events, his laywer told the media.
Wolf's lawyers told the San Francisco Chronicle that for the last few months the dispute between Wolf and the federal court has been about whether or not Wolf would have to testify, not about whether he would or would not turn over the video. In an earlier statement on his own blog Wolf said the discussion and his concern was not about the tape, but about whether he would be forced to testify before the grand jury. Once the court agreed that Wolf would not have to testify, a deal for his release was reached.
Wolf, 24, has been held in jail longer than any other American journalist for refusing to comply with a subpoena calling for him to testify and produce the tapes. Parts of his video had already been shown on TV after the 2005 political protest, and also shown on his Web site, but he refused to produce outtakes until now.
California's shield law protects journalists in state court, but there is no such law in federal court. The case involving Wolf's video is in federal court because of federal funding to the San Francisco police department, whose officers and vehicles were involved in the protest march Wolf photographed.
Press organizations had supported Wolf and used his case as an example for the need for a federal shield law for journalists, but prosecutors said Wolf was not a legitimate journalist.
Wolfwas at one time free on appeal but he was returned to prison in September 2006 when his bail was revoked after he lost the appeal.
On February 7, 2007, he set the dubious record of spending 169 days behind bars for contempt of court, more time in jail for the charge than any other journalist in recent history. Wolf has now been behind bars for more than 266 days.
Before Wolf, the honor of longest-jailed journalist was held by author Vanessa Leggett, who spent 168 days behind bars in the Federal Detention Center in Houston, TX, in 2001 for refusing to comply with a subpoena to turn over her notes, which included conversations with confidential sources, about a high-profile murder case she intended to write about. Leggett claimed a reporter’s privilege under the U.S. Constitution in court when ordered to produce her notes and was found in contempt.
Media organizations and lawyers have taken different sides, at different times, about whether Wolf has a rightful claim to be called a "journalist" or whether he is a political activist and Web blogger.
In August 2006 after Wolf was originally jailed, National Press Photographers Association president Tony Overman led a press conference along with leaders of other journalism organizations in San Francisco to protest Wolf's jailing and voice disapproval of recent court rulings that pressured journalists to release information to the government. The press groups called for the development of a federal shield law to protect journalists in situations like the ones created by Wolf's actions.
The Web site nwzchick reported today that an impromptu celebration party was being planned for Wolf tonight at San Francisco's House of Shields.
