Josh Wolf Jailed 226 Days for Refusing to Hand Over Protest Video
San Francisco freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf spent 226 days in federal prison — the longest any U.S. journalist had been jailed for protecting source material — after refusing a grand jury subpoena for unedited video footage he had shot of a 2005 G8 protest where a police car was damaged.
On July 8, 2005, Josh Wolf, a 22-year-old freelance videographer, filmed an anarchist protest in San Francisco timed to coincide with the G8 summit in Scotland. During the protest a police car was damaged and an officer suffered a skull fracture. Wolf posted edited footage on his blog but refused a federal grand jury subpoena for the unedited outtakes, arguing he was a journalist protected by California's shield law. Because the damaged police car was partly federally funded, federal jurisdiction was asserted, bypassing California's shield protection. Wolf was jailed August 1, 2006; he remained incarcerated at Dublin Federal Correctional Institution for 226 days — longer than any U.S. journalist in history at that point. He was released April 3, 2007, after reaching a deal to post the full footage online without having to testify or identify individuals. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called the case a dangerous federal end-run around state shield laws.