US blogger just out of jail
Americans have caught up with the Third World. You can now be jailed in the US for posting a video clip on your blog!
Josh Wolf spent seven and a half months in a federal prison for protecting his sources after posting a video on his blog.
People have been jailed in Third World countries for reasons such as politics, religious issues, or racism, but Wolf was in prison for refusing to hand over video he shot during a protest in San Francisco in 2005.
In a brokered deal, Wolf posted the uncut video on his site JoshWolf.net, gave prosecutors a copy, told them he had not witnessed any crimes - and was released on April 3, 2007.
In exchange, prosecutors acceded to Wolf's key contention: that he not be made to appear before a grand jury and identify those on his video.
However, the broader issue is whether he is a Journalist or an Activist. Being a journalist might entitle him the right to protect his sources. The debate is ongoing.
Showing posts with label jail for bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jail for bloggers. Show all posts
Friday, April 06, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Don’t blog your way to Jail
Leonard Chen has an interesting post over at AffiliateMarketingBlogger.com. He says when deciding what to write, it’s best to avoid topics like Religion, Politics and Racism – otherwise you may end up blogging your way to jail.
Yes, you can go to jail by blogging on the wrong topics.
As for blogging on religion, recently on February 22, 2007, Egyptian blogger named Abdel Kareem Suleiman (a.k.a. “Kareem Amer” online) was sentenced to 4 years jail for expressing his views on his religion in his blog.
As for political blogging, in February 2005, an Iranian blogger had been jailed 14 years. Arash Sigarchi was arrested after using his blog to criticize the arrest of other online journalists. They accused Sigarchi of a string of crimes against Iranian state, including espionage and insulting the country’s leaders.
As for racist blogging, for posting racist remarks against Muslims and Malays on the Internet, two ethnic Chinese Singaporeans – a blogger and a web forum user – were sentenced to jail under the Sedition Act on October 7, 2005.
Freedom of speech is recognized freely in the United States but this cannot be assumed in some other parts of the world, as can be seen by the above examples.
Leonard Chen has an interesting post over at AffiliateMarketingBlogger.com. He says when deciding what to write, it’s best to avoid topics like Religion, Politics and Racism – otherwise you may end up blogging your way to jail.
Yes, you can go to jail by blogging on the wrong topics.
As for blogging on religion, recently on February 22, 2007, Egyptian blogger named Abdel Kareem Suleiman (a.k.a. “Kareem Amer” online) was sentenced to 4 years jail for expressing his views on his religion in his blog.
As for political blogging, in February 2005, an Iranian blogger had been jailed 14 years. Arash Sigarchi was arrested after using his blog to criticize the arrest of other online journalists. They accused Sigarchi of a string of crimes against Iranian state, including espionage and insulting the country’s leaders.
As for racist blogging, for posting racist remarks against Muslims and Malays on the Internet, two ethnic Chinese Singaporeans – a blogger and a web forum user – were sentenced to jail under the Sedition Act on October 7, 2005.
Freedom of speech is recognized freely in the United States but this cannot be assumed in some other parts of the world, as can be seen by the above examples.
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