After watching a clip from Frontline about the imprisonment of Josh Wolf, an independent reporter/blogger who was jailed for not giving the FBI his videotape of a protest that happened in July 2005. I have decided that the government does have the right get the information from a journalist as long as it it is relevant to the case at hand.
Josh Wolf recorded the video in a completely different location than the 'burned SFPD car' he was not linked with the incident in any way, except that he was at the same protest. He also wanted to keep the confidences of his contacts within the anarchist association that put on the protest. It is possible that he may have been lying, but the truth often is the best way to get out of a sticky situation. It didn't work for Josh, but it taught us a lesson that the government should investigate further into whether the content is genuine before wrongly imprisoning someone on the basis that they are lying.
