Joshua Wolf unmuzzled

During a 2005 march in San Francisco, protesters, their faces obscured by bandanas, unfurled anarchist signs and dragged metal newspaper kiosks into the street, scraping them loudly against the pavement as vehicles maneuvered slowly through clogged intersections. After nightfall, police officers ran to the scene of some violent outbreak, pointed their guns at protesters and insisted they disperse. A woman asked if anyone cared that a nearby police car was on fire.

It all was captured on tape by young freelance journalist and blogger, Joshua Wolf. When a man—probably Wolf—asked if he had the right to stand on the sidewalk, he sounded haughty, as if no policeman would dare deny it. But, in mid-2006, Wolf lost the right to free assembly. He was imprisoned for nearly eight months for refusing to testify about the night’s vandalism and violence against a police officer. Immediately heralded as a hero for a free and independent press—which made some professional journos cringe—Wolf was released on April 3 after answering only a couple questions under oath. To see what all the fuss was about, view the video and read details of Wolf’s time behind bars at www.joshwolf.net/blog.