< Back to All News

Judge demands journalist surrender video

U.S. District Judge William Alsup (left) of San Francisco has ordered a freelance journalist to surrender a video of a July 8, 2005 clash between San Francisco police and anarchist demonstrators or face as much as a year in jail for contempt, according to the Chronicle. Journalist Josh Wolf (right) says he won’t turn over any tapes and says he didn’t even take pictures of the event police want to see — the alleged vandalism of a police car. Wolf says he’s prepared to go to jail. He says turning over the tape would turn him into a “surveillance camera for the government.” Wolf’s attorney, Jose Luis Fuentes, is asking the judge to transfer the case to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who is hearing the case of Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who have been ordered to reveal their source of a grand jury transcript in the Barry Bonds case. The lawyer says the cases raise the same issue: whether federal law provides any implicit protection for journalists who withhold confidential information from grand juries.

< Back to All News