Sarah Olson subpeona dropped
See story at Concord Monitor A San Francisco-based
reporter is no longer facing the difficult choice of testifying against
a source or going to jail. SPJ had sent a letter calling for the army to abandon the subpeona.
Prosecutors have dropped two of the charges against Lt. Ehren Watada,
the first officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. As part of a deal,
prosecutors dropped their subpoena of Sarah Olson, a freelance journalist who interviewed Watada last May.
The dropped charges - conduct unbecoming an officer - relate to
comments Watada made to Olson and another reporter. Watada still faces
court martial on another count of conduct unbecoming an officer. The
deal stipulates that Watada must agree to what the reporters would have
said.
Olson said the deal won't be a big concession for Watada.
"The line of defense that they're using, as far as I know, is
that he has a constitutional right to say these things," she told the Concord Monitor.
"It's not that he didn't say them."