Josh Wolf's Motion to Quash Grand Jury Subpoena

Why didn't you just present your video journalism with a pen name that couldn't be traced. Then there would be no risk of a subpoena, or police finding you and seizing the tape.

This is a complex suggestion and one that I don't have an easy answe for. On the one side, I've considered myself a journalist long before I got involved in activism and felt that my work in independent media was an extension of that. For another, although I respect everyone who protects themselves behind a hidden identity, I didn't want to do that and feel that as a journalist I was protected under the first ammendemnt, and although that has come into contention, I still feel that whether or not I work for the corporate media, I should be afforded the same protections. I anticipate that this case will demonstrate that my interpretation will be verified by the law.

Beyond that, no attempt to mask one's identity in the online world is fool-prrof. Sure, I could've sent my reports in from a pen-name using a laptop computer and squatting on available internet connections, but that would've simply made it just a bit more difficult to track me down. Having been arrested in the city of San Francisco for documenting protests in the past, it wouldn't be too difficult for the police to figure out who I am. Being employed on the record, my tax info is available to the government.

For these reasons, and simply out of the fact that I refuse to allow the government to force myself into secrecy, I elected to use my real name in my work.