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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>For Immediate Release
September 11, 2006 <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5><b>Ninth Circuit Panel Rules
Against Independent Journalist<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Josh Wolf Remains Free On
Bail<br><br>
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SAN FRANCISCO - September 11, 2006. After only one week of deliberation,
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals September motions panel returned an
unpublished ruling denying journalist Josh Wolf's appeal.<br><br>
<br><br>
Although the ruling is a perceived as a set-back, Wolf and his attorneys
remain hopeful that the case will eventually be decided in his favor.
Wolf and his legal team are currently reviewing the possible options
available to Wolf, including an En Banc appeal to the entire 9th Circuit
Court or a direct appeal to the United States Supreme Court.<br><br>
<br><br>
“This particular three judge panel of the 9th Circuit went out of its way
in a footnote to say that California law would not protect Wolf because
he was not employed by or connected with any official news agency,
despite the fact that California courts disagree and have interpreted
their own law to protect bloggers the same as the corporate media’s
journalists,” said Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the National
Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area. <br><br>
<br><br>
The panel consisted of Circuit Judges Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, Susan P.
Graber and Richard R. Clifton. “In a second footnote they continued
to narrow any potential protection for journalists by making a
distinction between public demonstrations versus confidential sources and
concluding that even if Wolf had a confidential source the powers of the
grand jury still carry more weight than the rights of a free and
independent media,” said Villarreal. “This panel was obviously very
hostile to free speech protections.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Wolf feels that “these attempts to decimate the state protections
afforded to journalists are shameful and I hope the Federal Courts
recognize the importance of a free press. I feel that Thomas Jefferson
said it best when he wrote, ‘were it left for me to decide whether we
should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.’ Just as
the founding fathers deemed it necessary to explicitly recognize the
rights of the press in the 1st amendment; it is high-time that our
federal courts stand with the constitution and do the same.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Wolf remains out on bail pending the final decision by the 9th circuit
and plans to continue to speak out about this issue.<br><br>
<br><br>
Court documents and past news articles can be found at
<a href="http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/">
http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/</a><br>
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