AP: Jailing of reporters remains rare but sends powerful signal

[Kadie]

August 03. 2006 5:27PM

Jailing of reporters remains rare but sends powerful signal

By SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press Writer


The jailing of a video journalist this week is turning up the heat on the growing list of reporters ordered to cough up information to federal grand juries: Cooperate or face prison time.

Trying to compel journalists to testify is an increasingly popular tactic among federal investigators trying to extract all manner of information from resistant reporters. And even the occasional incarceration of reporters is enough to put the squeeze on the news media.

"The federal government is seizing upon a weakness in the law," said Duffy Carolan, a media attorney at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine. Prosecutors are exploiting the absence of a federal shield law protecting journalists from prosecutors who seek their sources or material, she said.

"We've certainly seen an increase by the government in aggressiveness in going after reporters in the grand jury context," said Carolan, who has represented The Associated Press in the past.

Joshua Wolf, a freelance video journalist and blogger, was jailed Tuesday for refusing to hand over footage that never aired of a July 2005 protest.

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