Journalism is Not a Crime
Her hands zip-tied together and her nose audibly stuffy, Andrea Sahouri recorded herself in the back of a cop car after being taken into police custody.
We at the Association Foreign Press Correspondents | AFC-USA #StandWithAndrea, on trial for doing her job covering protests in Des Moines after the killing of George Floyd.
Sahouri, a reporter for the Des Moines Register, was covering a protest outside the Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines, IA, on May 31, 2020. She and her then-boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, were arrested while dodging tear gas and police lines, later charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts. They are both facing a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail.
“Police were approaching the crowd, trying to get them to disperse. We were running (and) my boyfriend who was with me was hit with a tear-gas canister,” Sahouri said in the red-hinged video she posted to her Twitter @andreamsahouri.
“As I was seeing if his leg was okay, police came closer, we went around the corner and I was saying ‘I’m press, I’m press, I’m press.’ Police deliberately took me, sprayed pepper-spray on my face, and then put me in zip-ties.”
According to Carol Hunter, the executive director of the Register, Sahouri was on assignment to cover the Black Lives Matter protest held days after George Floyd’s death -- who was killed when a white officer held a knee on his kneck for nine minutes.
“I’m just doing my job as a journalist. I’m just out here reporting as I see,” Sahouri said. Prior to her arrest, she had been posting photos from the protest to her Twitter.
Sahouri and Robnett were arrested by Officer Luke Wilson. Wilson testified that Sahouri pulled away from him when he tried to arrest her and Robnett also grabbed her arm in an attempt to get her away.
During questioning by the defense, Officer Wilson agreed with the fact that Sahouri had just been pepper-sprayed and experiencing the after-effects of the irritant that can cause burning, pain, and temporary blindness. Officer Wilson’s body camera did not record the arrest. Wilson testified that he thought he recorded and saved the file and didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late to retrieve the archival footage.
Later in the trial, defense attorneys introduce the body camera footage from Sgt. Natalie Chiodo. The camera did not capture what led to Sahouri’s arrest but shows her being arrested while covered in pepper-spray and crying in pain.
Defense Attorney Nicholas Klienfeldt motioned for a directed verdict on all counts. He asked the court to find there to be insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to convict Sahouri and Robnett. Judge Lawrence McLellan is reserving judgment on the motion and will return to it later in the case. The defense is continuing to call witnesses and Klienfeldt expects the trial to last until Wednesday, March 10th.
The Register and hundreds of other news organizations have expressed their support for Sahouri on social media. Columbia Journalism School, Sahouri’s alma mater, is promoting the hashtags #StandWithAndrea and #JournalismIsNotACrime. The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFC—USA) stands in solidarity with Andrea Sahouri and all other journalists - with priorities to educate the public - who have ever been arrested while on the job. Journalism is not a crime! #StandWithAndrea.
"I did nothing wrong," Sahouri said in a post-trial interview with the Des Moines Register. The jury announced on Wednesday 10, that Sahouri and Spenser Robnett were both acquitted on all charges put against them by Officer Luke Wilson. "I'm just really, really relieved. It's been a really, really tough year -- about 10 months. But it's the type of relief that I can't even explain," Sahouri continued. "I think the jury made the right decision. They made the decision to uphold democracy, adjust democracy, the freedom of the press, the first amendment rights, you know. The list goes on."