SPJ Award Speech


Good evening. I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it

tonight to accept this award. But I just couldn't

leave my live-work loft. I'm sure the food there

tonight will blow the roof of whatever I will be

eating here.

 

I'd like to thank the Society of Professional

Journalists for supporting my struggle. SPJ came out

on my behalf very early on. They have helped

immeasurably, both in terms of getting the word out

and also through providing generous aid in my defense.

 

Now tonight I am being honored alongside Mark

Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams as Journalists of the

Year through our determination to uphold the ethics of

the profession against prosecution and persecution.

Thank you.

 

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me

including my legal team, Siegel & Yee, First Amendment

Project and Martin Garbus.

 

Finding myself in prison has cemented my realization

that the US government is engaged in not one, not two,

not three, but five simultaneous wars. There are the

wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the so-called wars on

terror and drugs, and a covert, undeclared war that

thrusts everyone in this room between the cross-hairs

of the war on journalism.

 

According to Bill Moyers, as quoted in Static by Amy

and David Goodman: "There is a desire to silence any

dissent in this country by the Bush administration.

They practice extraordinary media manipulation . . .

and this whole attack on me is indicative of how when

anyone rises up to speak an alternative truth, an

alternative vision of reality, they try to discredit

them."

 

There is a war on journalism and I am a POW. I am not

the first. And I will probably not be the last. But

I'd like to thank the Northern California chapter of

SPJ for recognizing how crucial this matter is and for

honoring the resistance of Mark, Lance and myself by

naming us Journalists of the Year.

 

Josh Wolf, November 9, 2006