Free Josh Wolf!

Lawyers, journalists and members of local government assembled outside San Francisco's City Hall yesterday for a press conference and to publicly demand the liberation of Josh Wolf, the videoblogger jailed for 169 days since he refused to comply to a federal subpoena demanding a tape he took of alleged property damage crimes during a 2005 protest. In particular, founding publisher and editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian Bruce Brugmann had strong words on the matter, calling Josh Wolf "a First Amendment hero" and saying that he'd "never seen anything like this," not even when he was called on to extricate imprisoned journalists in South Korea for writing against the government. "This is worse than that," he said, darkly wondering if this was part of a larger offensive against San Francisco. Watch it here:

Back in August, we weighed in on the case of Josh Wolf, who writes and posts video on his own site as well for Indymedia, a Bay Area political site, who was jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating allegations that crimes were committed at a 2005 G-8 Summit protest in San Francisco -- alleged crimes of which he may or may not have video footage.

Why is Josh in Jail?

Josh Wolf, freelance journalist and independent videographer, is currently in “coercive custody” at the Federal Detention Facility in Dublin, California.  He is not charged with any crime and is being held under civil contempt. Wolf was incarcerated earlier this year after resisting a subpoena to testify before a Federal Grand jury and for refusing to turn over his source material for video he shot of a San Francisco Mission District protest against the G8 Summit in 2005. His incarceration is virtually unprecedented, and it is widely believed he will likely become the longest imprisoned journalist in U.S. history.

I never thought this would happen. I grew up being taught that the United States was the greatest country on earth. That dissent was not only permitted but encouraged, and that we had a free press that was not encumbered by government interference. This is so longer the case. One night I went to sleep in a free America, but I woke up in a police state. It’s hard to say when this transformation transpired; many would contend that it began shortly after September 11th, some would argue that it wasn’t until lies led us into the War in Iraq, and still others would say we started down this road soon after the American Revolution. I’m not sure who is right, but I do know that the process of waking up to this grim reality has been a painful one.