After spending 7 1/2 months in jail, longer than anyone else in a modern journalism rights case, blogger Josh Wolf reached a deal with prosecutors and was set free Tuesday. Wolf turned over unedited video of WTO protesters and, in exchange, was excused from identifying the individuals shown in the footage. He said he proposed the same deal in November but was turned down.
In her inaugural Truthdig column, Amy Goodman investigates the outrageous imprisonment of Josh Wolf, the blogger whose devotion to freedom of the press and resistance to government coercion have kept him in jail longer than any other modern journalist.
Josh Wolf has been in prison for more than 170 days—longer than any other journalist in modern history. The freelance videographer and blogger has been held since he refused to hand over footage of WTO protesters to authorities because, he says, the precedent would make journalists “de facto deputies and investigators” for law enforcement.