Blogger jailed for not giving video tape to jury free on bail

SAN FRANCISCO: A US blogger was freed on bail after spending a month in jail for refusing to give a federal grand jury raw video tape he took of a G-8 summit protest that turned violent in San Francisco.

Josh Wolf, 24, wore black clothing and white sneakers when he and his lawyer on Friday walked from a federal detention center about 48 kilometers from San Francisco.

Journalism rights groups, including the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the US Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) defended Wolf's decision to withhold raw video demanded by federal prosecutors.

"If people don't take a stand for what they feel is right, then they'll just continue to run over you," Wolf told reporters outside the jail.

A day earlier, a pair of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled Wolf could remain free on bail pending his appeal of a contempt of court finding.

"Getting a journalist out of jail always makes for a good day," said press rights attorney Theodore Boutrous, who had weighed in on Wolf's side in "friend of the court" legal filings on behalf of reporters' groups.

"At the very least, it suggests the government needs to be careful when treading on First Amendment rights."

Boutrous championed press rights through the course of the Michael Jackson trial that ended with the pop music icon acquitted on charges of inappropriate conduct with a boy at his Neverland Ranch in California.