Magistrate will mediate case of jailed blogger

SFGate
SAN FRANCISCO
Magistrate will mediate case of jailed blogger

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

A federal judge assigned a magistrate as a mediator Tuesday to try to
resolve the case of Josh Wolf, the blogger who has been in prison nearly
six months for refusing to turn over a videotape of an anarchist protest
to a federal grand jury.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who held Wolf in contempt of court in
August and has rejected several defense requests to free him, said in a
brief order that he was referring the case to U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero
"in the interest of reaching a resolution satisfactory to both sides.''

Alsup did not mention any basis for a possible settlement or otherwise
explain his order. Neither the U.S. attorney's office nor Wolf had
requested mediation. Dan Siegel, a lawyer for Wolf, said he was "pleased
but mystified'' by the order.

Wolf, 24, an activist and freelance video journalist, filmed part of a
July 2005 protest in San Francisco's Mission District against an
international economic conference in Scotland. During the demonstration, a
police officer was hit in the head and suffered a fractured skull, and
someone allegedly tried to set a city police car on fire with a bottle
rocket.

The federal grand jury is investigating the possibility that the attack on
the police car was a federal crime because the Police Department receives
funding from Washington. Some of Wolf's video was shown on local
television, but he has refused to release the outtakes to federal
authorities. Wolf says they contain no evidence of a crime and that he is
unwilling to assist the prosecution.

Wolf became the longest-imprisoned journalist for contempt of court in
U.S. history Feb. 6, his 169th day at the federal prison in Dublin. He
could be held until July, when the grand jury's term expires, or for an
additional six months if prosecutors extend the jury's term.

Neither side has given any indication of an impending compromise.

In the most recent prosecution filing, successfully opposing a defense
motion to have Wolf released, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Finigan
described Wolf as "delusional'' and a self-styled "journalistic martyr''
who had not really been acting as a journalist, just someone with a video
camera at a public event.

He also said a defense lawyer's offer to turn over the videotape, an offer
the lawyer denies he made, showed that imprisonment is having its intended
effect -- to pressure Wolf into cooperating.

Wolf, in an interview from prison Friday with the Pacifica network's
"Democracy Now" radio show, said it is a "scary idea'' that the government
could decide who is a journalist. He said his case shows the need for "a
free media that's not encumbered by interference, that doesn't force
journalists to act as agents of the state.''

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko [at] sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/14/BAGUGO48871.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle