Freelance videographer and blogger Josh Wolf, who spent more than seven months in prison as a journalist refusing to comply with a subpoena, was freed Tuesday after cutting a deal with prosecutors.

Wolf, 24, of San Francisco, emerged from a federal prison in Dublin soon after U.S. District Judge William Alsup vacated the contempt-of-court order against him.

Wolf has posted to his Web site (www.joshwolf.net) all the previously unreleased video footage he shot July 8, 2005, of a protest in San Francisco’s Mission District against the Group-of-Eight summit. During the protest a police officer was hurt and someone might have tried to set a San Francisco police car on fire.

Swearing in a new court document that he neither took part in nor could identify those responsible for the car’s damage or the officer’s injury, Wolf extracted a promise from prosecutors that they won’t use the existing subpoena to compel his testimony before a grand jury.

At a press conference late Tuesday afternoon on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, Wolf said the deal was “a good decision” since it freed him from having to testify - which he said was long the sticking point with prosecutors.

“This has never been about a videotape,” he said. “It was the testimony which I felt to be the most egregious affront on my rights as a citizen and a journalist. This leaves my ethics intact.”

Feh…

I remember the original argument being that distributing the video would be like giving up his sources and it was his prerogative about what to do with the tapes. Now he says the sticking point was having to testify in court about what’s on the tapes and he can keep his ethics in tact?

Sorry man… For people like myself who supported Josh on the basis of his journalistic privilege, this rings as a load of crap in a pretty dress and it sounds more like a deal to get him out of jail than a deal to preserve his journalistic integrity. Understand, I’m not faulting him for wanting to get out of jail or for cutting a deal, but let’s call a spade a spade here. Josh Wolf didn’t make a deal to preserve his journalistic integrity. Josh Wolf made a deal to get out of jail.

Preserving his journalistic integrity could have been done in the following ways:

1. Staying in jail until July.
2. Refusing to ever hand over the tapes.
3. Not cutting a deal.

None of those are ideal, but that’s the price you pay for integrity.

Again, I’m not faulting him as much for getting out or making a deal, just for saying that it allows him to maintain his integrity.

Frankly, it does the exact opposite.

via the San Jose Mercury News

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