Blogging into trouble with governments

By right in America all journalists are protected by the First Amendment where these hacks are afforded the right of free speech and newsgathering. They can expect a free flow of information without government intrusion.

Now we have a test case before the courts there to see if this same right can be extended to citizen journalists – and so far the initial battle seems to be going against this group.

Blogger Josh Wolf is well known for his videoblog where he allows people to feature their work on his site. Time magazine calls him one of internet’s earliest videobloggers and that he has “fast won notoriety for his attempts to democratize the media”.

Then on Tuesday, his attempts of such democratization came to a sudden halt. Wolf was found guilty of contempt of court and jailed until at least next July. His offence is his failure to disclose some unpublished video footage from his blog which showed clashes between San Francisco police officers and anti-G8 protesters last year.

Time magazine said:

“…(T)he feds are demanding to see everything that wasn't made public. They allege that the unused portion of Wolf's video may show the patrol car being set afire — part of a federal crime, the government asserts. Wolf denies there is an attempted arson on his videotape.”

Wolf claims that as an independent journalist, he is protected under the state's law, which protects journalists' confidential, unpublished material obtained while reporting.

Wolf’s case has been identified as a landmark case as he is the first blogger to be targeted by federal authorities for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.

The US government is sending a chilling message to citizen journalists - that despite their attempts to be part of a growing global media culture, they may not be deemed as journalists from the big corporations.

The little people who spread citizen journalism, as far as the US government is concerned, look set to be denied the same legal protections that conventional journalists have.

Is this yet another way for governments around the world to stop the free flow of potentially embarrassing information through blogs and websites?

It is not just the Third World despots who try to put a lid on citizen journalism. Just as I read about this US attempt, I was also alarmed by the decision of the Malaysian government to warn bloggers to be careful with their contents despite earlier promises not to censor cyberspace. Pretty soon, I am sure every government will have an effective control over online media too.