The trial of a Des Moines Register reporter who was arrested covering racial justice protests last summer is slated to begin next week in what experts said is a rare criminal prosecution of a journalist on assignment in the USA.
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| Andrea Sahouri |
At least 126 journalists were arrested or detained in 2020, but only 14 still face charges, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The group's managing editor, Kirstin McCudden, said it's "surprising and unknown" why Sahouri's charges remain.
Media and journalism groups called for the charges to be dropped, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and students and staff from the Columbia University School of Journalism, where Sahouri earned a master's degree. The human rights organization Amnesty International has also taken up the cause.
"That this trial is happening at all is a violation of free press rights and a miscarriage of justice," the Des Moines Register's Editorial Board wrote in an editorial.
Sahouri was arrested while on assignment at a mall in Des Moines to cover protests in the days after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died as a white police officer knelt on his neck. Floyd's death provoked unrest across the country, and Des Moines experienced days of protest demanding racial justice and changes to policing.
Police and prosecutors have provided few details about the incident May 31. Sahouri said she repeatedly told officers she was a journalist working in her official capacity to report on the protest.
The Des Moines Register, which is owned by Gannett, the same parent company as USA TODAY, reported that another reporter at the newspaper who was with Sahouri and not arrested corroborated her account of the events.
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