From: Scott Braley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To Journalist Friends: A San Francisco videographer and free-lance journalist is likely to go to jail on Thursday for refusing to hand over outtakes of a video to a Federal Grand Jury. Josh Wolf, who has been covering the anti-globalization movement for several internet media sites, videotaped a demonstration in San Francisco against the G8 meeting in Scotland last year. At the end of that demonstration, a policeman drove his car into a group of anarchist demonstrators, then tackled and arrested one. In the process, the policeman was hit on the head, and SF police have been trying to make IDs and arrests of people at the demonstration. The police say that some foam that the car ran over was on fire, although no evidence of that has been shown, and there may not have been any actual damage. Wolf taped the demonstration, and the incident, which he sold to a local TV station. Nothing on the broadcast tape shows any fire. Wolf has been subpoenaed to a Federal Grand Jury and ordered to turn over the rest of the tapes from the demonstration. The basis for the incident coming under federal jurisdiction is that since the US Government gives money to the SF police, if the police car had been damaged, it is possible that part of the money for the police car may have come from the US Government. I know, this sounds bizarre, but I'm not making it up. The Justice Department has declared anarchists and "environmental extremists" the great internal terrorist threats, and it looks like journalists are next in line. Wolf has quite responsibly refused to hand over the outtakes, based on his rights and responsibilities as a journalist not to be a surveillance camera for the police. In the middle of all the attacks by the Federal Government on the press, Wolf is doing the right thing as a journalist. We should support him. What is needed is: 1. For us to come to his press conference on Thursday July 20th, at the SF Federal Building, and to his contempt hearing at 1 PM. 2. For us to report on this situation and get as many media outlets as possible to cover it. Lawyers rarely succeed against Federal Grand Juries, but public notice often does. 3. Pass this information on to other journalists and photographers. Any of us could be in Wolf's place. A lot of microphones and cameras at the Federal Building may keep Wolf out of jail and us as journalists in a stronger position. Please call or email me to talk. 510-655-7638 Court documents and past news articles can be found at http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/ Scott Braley http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/18/BAGTVK0N871.DTL&hw=contempt&sn=001&sc=1000 San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, July 18, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO Contempt case over rally video - Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer A federal judge has ordered a freelance journalist to surrender video footage of a July 2005 clash between San Francisco police and anarchist demonstrators or face jail for contempt of court. The journalist, Josh Wolf, said Monday he would refuse to turn over the tapes, even if U.S. District Judge William Alsup rejects his legal defense at a hearing Thursday. "I am prepared to go to jail,'' said Wolf, 24. He said that his tapes don't show the event federal prosecutors say they are investigating -- the alleged vandalism of a police car -- and that yielding the videos would turn him into "a surveillance camera for the government.'' Wolf's lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes, said Wolf could be jailed for as long as a year, the possible duration of the federal grand jury investigating the incident. The case arises against a backdrop of the federal government increasingly seeking to require journalists to disclose confidential sources and unpublished material. New York Times reporter Judith Miller, one of several reporters targeted by a special prosecutor, was jailed for 85 days last year for refusing to identify the source of her information that Valerie Wilson, the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA agent. A federal judge has scheduled a hearing Aug. 4 to determine whether Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams should be ordered to reveal their sources of testimony by Barry Bonds and other athletes before a grand jury investigating a laboratory's illicit distribution of steroids. The reporters could be held in contempt and jailed if they refuse to testify. Fuentes said he would ask Alsup to transfer Wolf's case to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who is hearing the case of the Chronicle reporters. The lawyer said the two cases should be considered together because they raise the same issue: whether federal law provides any implicit protection for journalists who withhold confidential information from grand juries. Wolf's case arises from a protest July 8, 2005, in the Mission District against an international economic summit in Scotland. As officers pursued a band of anarchists, a San Francisco police car was allegedly set on fire. Federal prosecutors have said in court filings that the vandalism could be a federal crime because the Police Department receives federal funds. Federal law, unlike California law, contains no explicit protections for reporters who refuse to reveal confidential sources or unpublished material. Part of Wolf's video of the demonstration was shown on local television. Prosecutors have been seeking the rest of the footage since February. Alsup first ordered Wolf to produce the material June 15, after a closed-door hearing. According to a transcript that Alsup later made public, the judge told Wolf he had no basis for withholding the tapes, and cited Miller's case. Wolf appeared before the grand jury later that day, declared that he had a constitutional right to remain silent and to discuss the jury's questions with his lawyers, and was abruptly excused from the hearing by a prosecutor without explanation, according to Wolf's attorneys. But prosecutors returned to Alsup three weeks later with a request to hold Wolf in contempt of court. The judge signed an order July 10 telling Wolf that, unless he justified his refusal to comply with the demand for the tapes, he would be held in civil contempt for the rest of the grand jury's term. Fuentes said the grand jury investigating the demonstration convened in January and could remain in operation through next July. The lawyer said he would assert a variety of defenses for Wolf, including a claim that he had the right to remain silent to avoid possible self-incrimination. Fuentes declined to explain how Wolf could incriminate himself, but said he would provide a written explanation to Alsup under seal. If Alsup upholds Wolf's self-incrimination claim, a claim he rejected in the earlier hearing, the government could grant Wolf immunity from prosecution and ask the judge to order him to testify. E-mail Bob Egelko at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Page B - 1 ©2006 San Francisco Chronicle National Lawyers Guild Condemns Attack on Free Press Friday Jul 14th, 2006 10:04 PM The US Attorneys Office, led by Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Finigan, are attempting to force Wolf to testify before the grand jury and hand over a video tape of a protest that occurred in San Franciscos Mission District last July. For Immediate Release July 13, 2006 National Lawyers Guild Condemns Attack on Free Press San Francisco video journalist Josh Wolf is being charged with civil contempt for exercising his first amendment right and refusing to provide a federal grand jury with video footage he shot at a protest last summer. The Guild believes that the grand jury is being improperly used to obtain materials which would normally be protected under Californias Reporter Shield Law. *The civil contempt hearing is scheduled for July 20th at 1 p.m. before Judge William Alsup and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) will host a press conference at noon in front of the Federal Building450 Golden Gate in San Francisco on that day. * The US Attorneys Office, led by Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Finigan, are attempting to force Wolf to testify before the grand jury and hand over a video tape of a protest that occurred in San Franciscos Mission District last July. My clients political activity and free speech activity in the Bay Area as a journalist and this subpoena, with its associated threat of jail time for noncompliance, has an incredible chilling effect on his and other journalists freedom to gather and disseminate information of groups who espouse dissident beliefs, said Attorney Jose Luis Fuentes, of the Oakland based Siegel & Yee firm, who is representing Wolf on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild. The use of federal grand juries to target journalists and political activists who are critical of the repressive domestic and international policies of the United States government is an attack on democratic free speech activity. The implications of Josh Wolfs case go well beyond a single journalist or protest. Like the Judith Miller case or the BALCO case this is about the governments ability to take an independent and free press and treat it as an investigatory arm of the government, said Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area. The people of California have made it clear through our shield law that we prefer a free press that doesnt have the government constantly looking over its shoulder. Californias shield law, according to a recent court decision on the matter, is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news. In that decision, the California Court of Appeals in San Jose confirmed that the law protected internet bloggers just as it protected corporate news reporters. Federal protections are not as strong. People protesting or on strike for better wages or marching for amnesty should feel free to do so in front of journalists cameras, just as they should feel free to talk to journalists, said Wolf. A free press benefits all of us, he said. Court documents and past news articles can be found at http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. 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