On Thursday, November 9th, The Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honored imprisoned videojournalist, Josh Wolf, and Chronicle sports writers, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, with the distinction of Journalists of the Year "for upholding the principles of a free and independent press." They were recognized for the award because they chose the risk of jail time, rather than reveal confidential sources or turn over unpublished parts of their work to federal grand juries.

Wolf's mother, teacher Liz Wolf-Spada, accepted the award on behalf of her son. Wolf, who had been imprisoned, released and then re-imprisoned, has served a total of 82 days in a federal penitentiary for refusing to turn over his unedited video footage of a July 2005 San Francisco protest where a police car was damaged and police officers and protesters were injured. Wolf remains in federal prison in Dublin, California.

Under California law, Wolf would be protected under state press shield laws. However, in a federal investigation, Wolf has no such protection since no specific federal shield laws exist.

Josh Wolf was also awarded Best Male Vlogger and Most Controversial Video at the first annual Vloggy Awards in San Francisco on November 5th.

Read more | Indybay's Previous Feature on Josh Wolf

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