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# The Wolf case: So much for freedom of speech.
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/19133/
- Published: 2006-08-03T15:08:12.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:05.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**By Jessica Reed**

His readers were surprised. Last tuesday Josh Wolf's blog, '[The revolution will be televised](http://www.joshwolf.net/blog/?ref=opendemocracy.net)' was not updated by the young independent journalist-blogger, but his mother.  
  
The blog entry, titled 'Josh is in jail and this is his mom', explains how Wolf was arrested and thrown in San Fransisco's Dublin Federal prison without bail after having refused to hand out footage of an alterglobalisation protest to the American judge William Alsup. Wolf could stay incarcerated for the entire duration of the inquest - up to 18 months- as the American federal law does not have any dispositions concerning the protection of journalists' sources.

This is sadly another case part of a new trend consisting in jailing journalists who are reluctant to give up their sources - the biggest case to date being the [Judith Miller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith%5FMiller%5F%28journalist%29?ref=opendemocracy.net) & 'Plamegate' CIA [leak controversy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plamegate?ref=opendemocracy.net) (the New York Times journalist had to spend 85 days in jail for having refused to testify in front of a Grand Jury). 

**Elsewhere**: Reporters Without Borders [calls for the immediate release](http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id%5Frubrique=47&ref=opendemocracy.net) of the freelance journalist + Committee to Protect Journalists [is protesting](http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/usa02aug06na.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) \+ an [Indymedia audio interview](http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/10637.php?ref=opendemocracy.net)[ ](http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/10637.php?ref=opendemocracy.net)with Wolf, who defends the journalists' right to 'maintain private notes'.