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The former U.S. attorney representing Sahouri and Robnett, Nicholas A. Klinefeldt, told the jury Sahouri was “assaulted” when she was pepper-sprayed and “arrested while doing her job.”
Amnesty International, more than 250 people affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism – where Sahouri graduated from – and several other major groups have called on Polk County Attorney John Sarcone to drop the charges against Sahouri.
University of North Carolina law professor David Ardia told the Washington Post that although journalists are not given special privileges to remain in nonpublic places under the First Amendment, prosecutors have typically declined to press charges against reporters covering protests.
Officer Luke Wilson said he wasn’t aware Andrea Sahouri was a Des Moines Register reporter when he responded to a chaotic scene where protesters were breaking store windows and throwing rocks and water bottles at police outside Merle Hay mall on May 31.
Rare trial of U.S. journalist arrested on the job begins in Iowa
Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri faces 30 days in jail after she was charged with misdemeanors from her coverage of racial justice demonstrations in May.
By Elahe IzadiThe Washington Post
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Police officers are shown arresting Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri after a Black Lives Matter protest she was covering on May 31, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo courtesy Katie Akin via AP
Prosecutors in Iowa began their case Monday against a Des Moines Register reporter arrested during racial justice protests last summer, a rare trial of a U.S. journalist charged with a crime while reporting.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A police officer testified Monday that he arrested a journalist at an unruly Black Lives Matter protest last year in Iowa after she did not