California First Amendment Coalition

Friday, August 18, 2006

PRESS RELEASE

CALIFORNIA FIRST AMENDMENT COALITION CONDEMNS FEDERAL CONTEMPT SANCTIONS AGAINST 3 CALIFORNIA JOURNALISTS FOR RESISTING FEDERAL SUBPOENAS FOR SOURCES, OUT-TAKES

The California First Amendment Coalition, at its board meeting in San
Francisco on Wednesday, strongly defended three California journalists
from what it called “unrestrained attacks on a free press” by the federal
government.

“Jailing reporters and employing other means to force them to reveal
confidential sources or hand over unpublished material stifles the free
flow of information, muzzles whistleblowers and prevents reporters from
doing their Constitutionally-prescribed job of keeping the public informed,”
the CFAC board resolution states.

CFAC called on U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to
lift his contempt order and free Josh Wolf, a freelance filmmaker jailed
on Aug. l, and demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice drop its
“indefensible and senseless campaign to punish Wolf via the federal court
system.” Wolf was jailed for refusing to honor a federal grand jury
subpoena for the out-takes of his filming of a 2005 San Francisco
street demonstration that turned violent.

Also this week, CFAC filed an amicus brief in Wolf’s case, which is now on appeal to the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The brief, also filed on behalf of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional Journalists and the WIW Freedom to Write Fund, urges adoption of a “reporter’s privilege” based both on the first amendment and on the federal Rules of Evidence.

The CFAC resolution calls on U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White to withdraw his threat to jail San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, and to rescind his order compelling the reporters to disclose their confidential sources for grand jury testimony given by Barry Bonds and other athletes concerning use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports.

CFAC urged federal prosecutors to “drop this persecution of two journalists who, by their work, have greatly expanded public awareness of the role of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports.”

CFAC once again urged the U.S. Congress to approve a federal shield law
that would “protect the confidentiality of journalists’ sources, encourage
exposure of government wrongdoing via anonymous whistleblowers, protect
the free flow of information and prevent the very kind of confrontations
on display in San Francisco in which journalists are being placed behind
bars for simply exercizing the freedoms spelled out by the framers of our
Constitution.”

The resolution notes that, while California has a shield law that “protects journalists from being required to hand over unpublished material or disclose confidential sources to prosecutors, “prosecutors
in the Wolf case have “tried to sidestep this law by seeking prosecution
in federal court on the hollow arugment that a police car, burned
during the San Francisco demonstration, was paid for partly with federal funds.”

CFAC is is a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to advancing free speech and open-government rights. A membership organization, CFAC’s activities include educational and informational programs, participation in “test case” litigation to enhance first amendment rights for the largest number of citizens, and legislative oversight of bills affecting free speech.

CFAC’s members are newspapers and other news organizations, libraries, civic organizations, academics, freelance journalists, community activists--and ordinary individuals seeking help in asserting rights of citizenship.

The full CFAC resolution is reprinted starting on the front page of this website. The amicus brief in the Wolf case is available here.

http://www.cfac.org

CONTACT:
Paul C. Gullixson
CFAC Board President
The Press Democrat
Phone: (707) 521-5282

Permalink

Save This Page