Iowa reporter secures 1st Amendment right

     A 25-year-old female Des Moines Register reporter was found not guilty of two simple misdemeanor charges last week, stemming from her presence at a Black Lives Matter protest in Des Moines in May 2020.

     Andrea Sahouri was present at that protest for one reason, and one reason only: her job. She was covering the protest as a reporter for a newspaper.

     The BLM protests, which took place all over the country last summer following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, were the subject of numerous news reports from coast to coast for days and weeks. People of all races and ethnicities, of all ages, of all backgrounds, came together to protest what they felt was an unjust killing of a Black man. The BLM protests then took on new meaning of social and racial injustices.

     Sahouri was at the Des Moines protest covering it for the Des Moines Register when things took a turn. Some violence ensued she a law enforcement officer sprayed pepper spray into Sahouri’s face and zip-tied her hands together. All this, despite the fact that Sahouri kept telling the officer that she was a reporter and a member of the press. In fact, there is video evidence of Sahouri repeatedly telling the officer this.

     And despite being a member of the free press, Sahouri was arrested, charged, and had to face a jury on trial for those charges.

     The prosecution told the jurors not to consider Sahouri’s profession as a journalist when deciding her guilt or lack thereof, saying her profession shouldn’t be used as her sole defense. It was her profession that caused her to be present at the BLM protest in the first place. As Sahouri’s attorney said, this was about a reporter being arrested for doing her job.

     This case gained national attention, much like the BLM protests also gained national attention. News agencies all over the country stood with Sahouri for simply doing her job. As Des Moines Register reporter William Morris stated in his piece in the most recent Iowa Newspaper Association (INA) newsletter: “Reporters need to be at protests as the public’s eyes and ears, to conduct interviews, take photos and witness for themselves the actions of protestors and law enforcement.”

     Iowa Public Radio shared that 128 journalists all over the country were arrested in 2020. The majority of those arrests were at protest events. Compare that figure to 2019, when just nine reporters were arrested. (Figures from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.) Why is there such a disconnect with the media?

     “Journalists should be able to do their important work of witnessing, documenting, and providing accounts of legitimate news events without fear of arrest or intimidation,” stated Iowa Public Radio in a recent statement.

     Think about all of the major news events that have made history in our country in the last 50 years or so… You would not know the story behind those events or see the images or video footage had it not been for brave reporters and journalists doing their job.

     The media is not the enemy.

     And while we’re at it, the fact that Sahouri was charged, let alone taken to trial, goes against the 1^st Amendment’s mention of freedom of the press. She was doing her job, plain and simple.

     “That’s why I’m in this field. I maintain that it’s important to be documenting history and informing our communities,” she was quoted as saying by Radio Iowa.

     The public, law enforcement, government officials, may not like how we do our jobs, may not like how we report the news, may not like what we report, but that’s the job of the press. (K.N.B.)