United States: CFWIJ Condemns The Arrest And Trial Of Andrea Sahouri Demands She Be Released Immediately.
Location: United States, Des Moines
Date: February 26, 2021
Andrea Sahouri was arrested ìn May 2020 while covering a Black Lives Matter protest. Her trial is scheduled to take place next month. Despite her employer publication registering a protest, and terming this repression of the press, the charges against her have not been culled.
Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was pepper sprayed and arrested at a BLM protest rally on May 31, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa. According to Sahouri, she was covering a demonstration at Merle Hay Mall when she was arrested. The police attacked the demonstration with tear gas, and Andrea's partner was injured in the commotion that followed. According to Andrea, when she sat down to tend to his injuries, the police approached them, and despite Andrea's clarification that she is part of the press, the officer sprayed her twice in the face with pepper spray. A photograph of Andrea, handcuffed, and sitting on the curb came to light, making the police overreach obvious. Sahouri was escorted to the Polk County Jail, and charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
In October 2020, Sahouri was offered a plea bargain, where if she pled guilty to one charge, the other would be dismissed. She rejected the bargain and maintained innocence on both counts. Des Moines Register published an op-ed, calling the charges against Sahouri “a clear infringement on the freedom of the press.” Now, after several delays, Sahouri's trial is set to take place on March 8, 2021, and will serve as an educational exercise for students of Drake University Law School who will be in attendance.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the arrest and trial of a journalist doing her job. It escapes no one's notice that Andrea Sahouri is a journalist of colour on trial for covering a Black Lives Matter demonstration, and she was not only arrested but also attacked at the scene despite not resisting any police actions. The institutional racism and culture of violence in the US police department needs to be urgently addressed, and Andrea Sahouri should be immediately acquitted from all charges.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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