Journalists Behind Bars

When the story broke, the mainstream media was all over it. The Police Commissioner eventually had to apologize for the behavior of the cops in that district and reassured the public that such lists would never again be kept.

PGN reporters broke a lot of big stories about AIDS, some of them fairly controversial. Luckily, none of us ever got called before a grand jury to reveal who our “deep throats” were. Back then, prosecutors and judges didn’t have an Orwellian “war on terror” or a Homeland Security to invoke whenever they wanted to go after a reporter. These days, it’s a totally different ball game.

Take the case of Josh Wolf. The local freelance reporter sits in a federal prison in Dublin, California for merely doing his job. A frequent contributor to San Francisco Indybay, he caught footage of an anarchist demonstration in the City’s Mission District last summer. A police officer was injured in that protest. Police allege that demonstrators attempted to set a police car on fire, though there’s no evidence of that. Since the vehicle was paid for partially with money from Homeland Security, the SFPD brought in the feds when Wolf refused to turn over his unedited tape. Wolf could remain in prison until July 2007 when the grand jury expires. While journalists have protections against revealing their sources under California shield law, they have far fewer under federal statute.

Wolf isn’t the only journalist facing prison for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury. SF Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada have refused to reveal sources on their story about steroid use among sports stars. They are currently out on bail awaiting an appeal. They could end up as Wolf’s cellmates.

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