Blogger Released from Jail

Josh Walsh, a blogger(8) spent eight months in jail, according to a story in the Washington Post. The federal government wanted a video that Walsh had recorded. The U.S. attorney office finally offered a deal in which Walsh accepted as a get out of jail. Walsh holds the record for the longest contempt of court charge by some one in the United State media.

A San Francisco blogger who spent nearly eight months in jail for refusing to testify about an anarchists' demonstration was released yesterday after turning over a videotape of the protest and posting it on his Web site.

Josh Wolf, 24, also answered two questions from prosecutors, after striking a deal that ends the longest contempt-of-court term ever served by someone in the U.S. media.

This should get journalists to going, a blogger as part of the media. For shame.

The case sparked a First Amendment debate over whether Wolf is a journalist and whether he deserved protection for the video he shot of the 2005 protest against a G-8 summit meeting in Scotland, since he made no explicit promises of confidentiality. Wolf sold other parts of the tape to local television stations and posted those portions online. In reaching the agreement with prosecutors, Wolf backed off his original position that he would not turn over the footage.

Do bloggers have first amendment protection?