The federal government has jailed a blogger for refusing to divulge what he says is shielded information.
In the first known case of a blogger being jailed by federal authorities, freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was jailed Tuesday after refusing to turn over video he took at an anti-capitalist protest in San Francisco and for not testifying before a grand jury examining whether crimes took place at the protest, writes the New York Times.
Wolf posted some of the edited video on his blog, www.joshwolf.net (his mom is posting there now), and sold some of the footage to local TV stations. But he refused to hand over the tapes to investigators, arguing that he had the right as a journalist to shield his sources - and says on a video on his blog that the request is analogous to asking for a reporter's notes taken in preparation for an article.
The protest, tied to a Group of 8 meeting of world economic leaders in Scotland, ended in a clash between demonstrators and the San Francisco police, with one officer sustaining a fractured skull. A smoke bomb or fireworks was also put under a police car.
