Josh Wolf was a young video blogger who covered an anarchist protest in San Francisco. (On NPR I heard some of the footage--kids chanting “Smash the state! Smash the state!”) Apparently a police officer was injured and a cruiser burned. Since the cruiser was purchased with government money, the gov’t claimed it was a federal crime, and thus Wolf enjoyed no protections as a journalist. He refused to give up his out-takes (which the gov’t claimed may have had incriminating evidence) and finally struck a deal to end his 7 1/2 month prison stay. For what it’s worth, he sounded fairly articulate and reasonable in the short clips I heard.
In any event, it’s pretty ridiculous that someone can go to jail for not handing over videotapes that (everyone now stipulates) contain nothing incriminating.
