Guild "Freedom Award" Honoree Released from Jail

Online journalist Josh Wolf, who is being honored by The Newspaper Guild-CWA next month for refusing to turn over a protest video to authorities, was released from a federal detention center on Tuesday after spending 7 ½  months behind bars.

Wolf's time in jail set a record for a journalist refusing to comply with a subpoena. The 24-year-old was released after cutting a deal with prosecutors in which he posted the full video on his website and gave a copy to prosecutors in exchange for their promise that he wouldn't be summoned to testify before the grand jury.

The fact that prosecutors dropped their demand that he testify was key to making the deal, Wolf said. "Journalists absolutely have to remain independent of law enforcement," he said, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle. "Otherwise, people will never trust journalists."

"Josh Wolf spent 226 days in jail upholding the principle that journalists should not be investigators for the government," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley. "Now that he's out of jail, we look forward to presenting him with our annual Herbert Block Freedom Award." The award will be presented at the Guild's annual Freedom Fund Award banquet May 3 in Washington, D.C.

Wolf's video shows footage of the 2005 G-8 Summit in San Francisco's Mission District, during which a police officer suffered a fractured skull. He had shown parts of the video on his website but authorities wanted it all, in addition to his testimony.

Speaking to reporters outside the prison, he said he didn't regret the months in jail. "Absolutely, this was worth it. I would do it again if I had to," he said. The Chronicle said Wolf also called for a federal shield law that would protect journalists, including bloggers, from being forced to disclose sources or unpublished material.