Journalists can be found in newspapers, on news shows, on the radio, on the Internet and now they're moving into jail cells too. Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf, 24, was jailed Tuesday after refusing to hand over video he shot of an anti-capitalist demonstration in San Francisco last summer.
He also refused to testify in front of a grand jury about the possibility of crimes being committed at the demonstration.
Wolf sold some of his edited video to local television stations and also posted that version on his Web site in a blog. But when Wolf was asked to hand over the raw video, he argued that he had protection under shield laws.
Shield laws are those that protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources and notes or other unpublished information. Journalists argue that being forced to turn over such work could turn them to be a government pawn, forcing them to spend time and money on court proceedings and compromising their duty to be objective observers.
But is a blogger a journalist?
It can be argued that anyone gathering information to disseminate to the public — whether that be through blogging or writing an article for a newspaper — is doing the job of a journalist. In that respect, this becomes an pertinent issue for anyone attempting to share information with the public.
Current shield laws haven't been used to protect bloggers, but maybe its time to re-evaluate. Shouldn't the same protections apply?
The material Wolf had published both on television and on his Web site is available for all to access, even the government. Any information beyond that, though, should be protected.
In the recent cases of Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, federal investigators have overturned shield laws, saying that the identity of the source serves as an integral part in serving justice.
Shield laws exist to protect the news gathering process. Without this process, reporters and news organizations would not be able to serve their purpose of informing the public. Being able to ensure the confidentiality of a source is imperative to maintain the flow of important information from knowledgeable sources with a lot at stake.
Wolf documented a newsworthy event — a protest — and shared parts of what he recorded with an audience of TV viewers and Internet readers to inform them of what he observed. That deserves to be protected. The government should let him out of his cell and let him get back to his work.
