Free Josh Wolf!

Wolf was ruled in contempt by a San Francisco-based federal judge and sent prison for the duration of the grand jury term or until he changes his mind.

Here’s the rub. He says he’s a journalist.

California journalists enjoy the protection of a relatively strong shield law, designed to protect sources. But there is no federal shield law, and it’s the Feds who are out for Josh Wolf’s testimony and tape.

Josh Wolf is 24 years old. He doesn’t work for the NBC News or the New York Times or any other deep-pocketed, highly recognizable corporate entity that society would automatically accept as a legitimate news-gathering organization. Katie Couric he’s not. Rather, he’s one of the critical foot soldiers in a vital army of news reporters out there in our midst trying to chronicle what’s going on in the world and scratch out a meager living with his work. In other words, Josh Wolf is a freelance journalist.

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Josh Wolf may be the first blogger imprisoned for his journalism; he undoubtedly won’t be the last. If we are all potentially journalists – the NBC reporters, the bloggers, and the barbers – can there be a role for protections and privileges such as shield laws? Perhaps the First Amendment is all we ought to count on as journalists. No shield laws, no press cards, no free tickets to Disneyland from their “media services” department. If that were the case, then anyone really could be a journalist with all the rights that come with job. But if we’re going to create a special class for the press, we’ve got a serious chore on our hands deciding who gets in the club and whom we exclude.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-laufer/free-josh-wolf_b_26424.html