San Francisco photographer and blogger Josh Wolf (right), who is refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena for his testimony and video outtakes of a political protest, has spent 169 days in a federal prison in an East Bay federal prison as of today (Feb. 6). He has now spent more time behind bars than author Vanessa Leggett, who was jailed for 168 days in a Texas federal prison for refusing to comply with a subpoena in 2001. As this morning’s New York Times notes, Wolf remains behind bars even as the United States attorney who had him held, Kevin Ryan, has said he is stepping down and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has dismissed the lone remaining criminal case involving the protest. Wolf could stay jailed until the term of the grand jury ends in July. The longest-held journalist is former Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson (left), who was abducted on a west Beirut street on March 16, 1985 by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslims, and held 2,454 days before being released Dec. 4, 1991.

Josh Wolf Benefit tonight
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 8 p.m.
House of Shields
39 Montgomery St., San Francisco
Benefit performers The Greening,
Troublemakers Union, GAVIOTAS

News coverage and press releases:
• release from the Free Josh Wolf Coalition
• release from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
• Center for Media and Democracy: Call for Freeing Josh Wolf
• Release from Reporters Without Borders
• Indymedia: “Don’t bother looking for Josh Wolf on the evening news
• NBC11: Journalist Josh Wolf Longest Held in History
• Chronicle: Blogger jailed for defying grand jury
• New York Times: Jail Record Near for Videographer Who Resisted Grand Jury
• AP: Bay Area videographer becomes longest held journalist