Iowa Reporter Found Not Guilty By Jury After Arrest At Black Lives Matter Protest

Justice for a brave reporter arrested for doing her essential job, covering a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Thank goodness a fairly selected jury checked the actions of some bad-apple cops, including LEO Luke Wilson, who didn’t want to be observed while on the job.

The founders of our nation understood that a healthy democracy requires a free press, not a corrupt police state that serves the interests of the powerful and privileged.

A Des Moines Register reporter has been found not guilty by an Iowa jury of failing to disperse and interfering with official acts. She was arrested by police last summer as she was covering a Black Lives Matter protest last summer.

Andrea Sahouri’s case has drawn international concerns over its implications for press freedom amid what 1^st Amendment advocates have said is a sharp increase in recent arrests of journalists in the U.S.

Sahouri, 25, was arrested on May 31 during a protest that took place days after George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. She said that a police officer, identified as Luke Wilson, deliberately pepper-sprayed her and zip-tied her wrists even after she identified herself as a journalist.

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The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said 128 journalists were arrested in the U.S. last year – the vast majority at protests — compared to just nine in 2019. Besides Sahouri, 13 other journalists currently face criminal charges, it added. —NPR