Even though class hasn’t yet started, I have to post about a kid out on the West Coast in a heap of trouble over something the First Amendment should protect him from. If the First can’t do the trick, California’s shield law, which is fairly strong, should bail him out. Of course, he first would have to be deemed a reporter.
As the San Francisco Chronicle notes, this kid isn’t a saint, but what he did and what he wants to continue doing is publish, write, express and communicate. His legal woes beg the oft-repeated question, “Who is a journalist?” What kinds of communication and expression are protected speech, and what does the Internet have to do with making the distinction? These are great questions for our course.
The jailed blogger’s name is Josh Wolf. His blog: The Revolution Will Be Televised. A wiki has been set up to “free Josh Wolf,” and it gives some good background on the case.
And here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle, from an editorial in its Thursday, August 3 edition:
. . . the First Amendment was not crafted just to protect the mainstream media. One of its clear aims was to allow journalists to do their jobs without government regulation or interference.
It’s hard to think of a more basic measure of a free country than the ability of people to demonstrate against government policies — and the freedom of journalists to edit and disseminate their accounts of such events.
Wolf was recording a demonstration by a group of anarchists on July 8, 2005. The demonstration turned unruly, with some of the protesters vandalizing buildings and scuffling with police. Wolf posted some of the videos on his Web site.
Federal prosecutors are demanding that Wolf turn over the outtakes — claiming to be specifically interested in the attempted burning of a police car. . . .
But the really ominous element of the government’s argument is the notion that a journalist can be compelled to turn over raw material — be it notes or video outtakes — at the government’s whim. If that standard can apply to Josh Wolf, it can be used against CNN, NBC, Fox News or any independent journalist who is conducting an investigation or trying to record a chaotic event. Journalists are not agents of the government.
