Arab-American journalist Andrea Sahouri found not liable
12 March, 2021
Palestinian-American journalist Andrea Sahouri was found not liable on Wednesday after being arrested last summer while reporting on Black Lives Matter protests.
Sahouri, of the Des Moines Register in Iowa, was acquitted on misdemeanour charges in a case that attracted national attention.
She had been prosecuted for not moving away while within the George Floyd protests on May 31 in the Des Moines city centre.
“I put up my hands and said, 'I'm press, I'm press', and he grabbed me and pepper-sprayed me and explained, 'That's not what I asked',” Sahouri said, telling the court these were the last words she spoke before her arrest.
Other reporters were detained over the US for similar reasons but charges against them were dropped by the prosecution.
Her partner at the time, Spenser Robnett, who was simply with her at the protest, was also acquitted.
While giving evidence, Sahouri said she was simply doing her job by being on the scene.
“It is important for journalists to be on the scene and document what's happening," she said.
"Protests erupted not simply in the united states but across the world. I felt like I was playing a job in that. I know we are a little city, but I felt like I was playing a role in that."
The prosecution argued that Sahouri and Robnett knew of the dispersal order 90 minutes before their arrests, but didn't leave the area.
They said her status as a journalist was irrelevant.
Sahouri's acquittal was welcomed by press freedom organisations but that the case even made it to court elicited condemnation.
Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said his organisation was heartened by the jury’s decision.
“The jury apparently saw this case for what it really is: a disgraceful utilization of prosecutorial resources and an assault on fundamental principles of press freedom,” Mr Timm said.
“Andrea Sahouri shouldn't have already been arrested while reporting at that protest in May.
"Once that egregious mistake was clarified, the charges shouldn't have already been filed or immediately dropped.
"That these charges were pursued all the way to trial is a shame and an embarrassment for press freedom in the United States."
The Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed your choice and said “reporting isn't a crime”.
“Polk County prosecutors never must have filed charges against her in the first place.”
In line with the Des Moines Register, Sahouri is a Palestinian American, born in Flint, Michigan.
She graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and before that studied American Culture and Arab and Muslim-American Studies at the University of Michigan.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
TAG(s):