community journalist in trouble

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Scott Braley <scottb@xxxxxxx>


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/