Freelance journalists fight Army subpoena

Two freelance reporters, one a well-known Iraq-based blogger, are fighting subpoenas to testify in the court martial trail of the first officer to refuse deployment to Iraq:

SAN FRANCISCO Two freelance journalists are fighting subpoenas by the Army to testify at a court-martial proceeding against a soldier who refused to go to Iraq.

The Army ordered Sarah Olson and Dahr Jamail to testify Jan. 4 against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who is charged with missing troop movement and four counts of conduct unbecoming of an officer.

The conduct charges stem from interviews Watada gave to Olson and other reporters in which he criticized the Bush administration and the Iraq war. Jamail covered an August anti-war rally where Watada spoke. The Army wants the reporters to testify in order to verify the statements attributed to Watada in their stories.

The reporters claim the subpoenas threaten press freedoms. [AP}

You can read Jamail's Iraq blog here. Jamail's attorney won't say whether he plans to appear in court.

Comments

[Alon Levy]

Sorry for being off-topic, but can you load my blog, or for that matter any blog hosted on Wordpress? Everything on the Wordpress system seems to be down, and the support page says, "Even support mavens need holidays sometimes."

[Alon Levy]

Correction: some blogs seem to be working. Tyler's blog is up. But mine and some others are still down.