United States
Wolf finally releasedPosted Jun 20 2007
After 224 days in jail, independent journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was released on April 3. The videographer turned over video clips of a violent protest to the federal court. The San Francisco protest resulted in injuries to a police officer and fire to a police car in 2005. Wolf, 24, denied giving his material to officials and refused to identify anyone in the video, claiming that it was his journalistic right to refuse submitting his video to authorities. According to The New York Times, critics including Federal District Court Judge William Alsup question Wolf's qualification as a journalist, considering he was not affiliated with any news organization at the time of the protest. Overwhelming support of Wolf's release, which includes blogs and Web sites devoted to the case, advocate press freedom. Even after releasing the video, Wolf still refused to testify or identify anyone on the tape.