Josh Wolf is not a journalist in the traditional sense. He is 24 years old, a resident of California, a video blogger and a self-proclaimed anarchist. Many serious journalists might roll their eyes or shrug their shoulders at him based on that description alone — if he weren’t in prison.

Wolf may soon hold the title of longest-imprisoned journalist in U.S. history. He is held in contempt of court for refusing to surrender tapes of a riot. California has a shield law; one that protects journalists from being forced to reveal their sources, but prosecutors claim that because federal funding was involved in counteracting the riot, any evidence Wolf may have pertains to a federal case. The judge presented Wolf with a simple choice: surrender his tapes or be held in prison for contempt of court.

Wolf chose like a journalist would.

Wolf’s captors have not charged him with anything, nor is he even the individual on trial. He is a young man with a camera and a Web site who, in the eyes of the law, is as much a journalist as a New York Times or CNN staffer. In the eyes of the law, journalists have two choices in situations like his: forfeit their objectivity or be thrown in jail.

This cannot continue. Our government is holding Wolf, who is no older than many college students, on a malicious technicality. Wolf’s status as a journalist can be argued or scoffed at, but the reality remains that by law, he is one. By law, journalists must have the right to remain objective, to protect their sources and to report stories without fear of incarceration.

Wolf must be released, or we have neither a free press, nor a free country.