Josh Wolf Sets Imprisonment Record for U.S. Journalists - 'A Bad Signal to the World'

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Sometimes it takes setting some sort of record to be noticed. The New York Times observes that Josh Wolf has become "the longest incarcerated journalist in modern American history" passing "Vanessa Leggett... Mr. Wolf, 24, has been in prison since August, with a brief break in September related to his appeal, after refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigation of an anticapitalist protest in 2005 ... . Prosecutors have demanded that Mr. Wolf give them his raw video, some of which he has posted on his Web site, as well as testify about the protesters seen on the tape for an investigation into possible charges, including arson. ... 'This is one more example of the increasing attacks on confidentiality of sources in the United States, one more blow to investigative journalism and, eventually, to the right for American people to be informed,' Lucie Morillon, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders in Washington, wrote in an e-mail message. 'This is a bad signal sent to the rest of the world.' "