Matt: On Wednesday Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was acquitted of all charges following her arrest at last summer's protests for racial justice.

Andrea Sahouri: Immediately I see this officer coming at me and I put up my hands and say, "I'm pressed," he grabbed me and pepper-sprayed me and as he was doing so said, "That's not what I asked."

Matt: That was the Iowa journalist testifying at her trial on Tuesday, where she was being charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts. Sahouri is just one of several journalists who were facing charges connected to last summer’s protests, which saw an unprecedented number of journalists arrested or detained for doing their jobs. Here to walk us through all of that is Kirsten McCudden, managing editor of the US Press Freedom Tracker. Kirsten, thanks for joining us.

Kirsten McCudden: Matt, thanks for having me on to talk about this.

Matt: Yes, it's so important and very interesting case. Andrea Sahouri was acquitted by jury in Iowa just yesterday. Why does this matter for both journalists and also the public?

Kirsten: It's a great question, Matt, a lot of eyes have been on Ms. Sahouri's case because it's rare for a journalist to face trial. At the US Press Freedom Tracker, we docent these things in the last journalists we had going to trial was in 2018. Last summer, we saw, as you said, an unprecedented amount of journalists arrested or detained while covering Black Lives Matter protest, social justice protests all across the US.

Nearly 130, which let's just put that a little bit of context, in 2019, the Tracker documented nine journalists arrested or detained. 2020, more than 125, but of those, most of the time the journalist is released or the charges are dropped. In Ms. Sahouri's case, it went all the way to trial. The charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts were never dropped and in fact, they took her to trial. It was a three-day trial. As you said, it ended yesterday with an acquittal on both counts.

Matt: What was the state arguing? What were they saying that Sahouri did?

Kirsten: Failure to disperse that there was a dispersal order and that she did not do that. Also, that she interfered so interference with official acts. That means in this case, that she resisted arrest when the officer was putting her into cuffs. The prosecution argued that her role as a journalist didn't matter that she didn't have a right to be there. The defense argued that the dispersal order wasn't clear where they were and that as a journalist, she has a right to be there to document.

Matt: What do we know about attitudes about the press in Iowa? Was this Iowa-specific situation? I've reported in Iowa that people were always quite kind, never had an issue. I'm wondering though if there was a certain distrust of journalists there, similar to what we saw from the Trump administration that might've been at play.

Kirsten: The prosecution wasn't very forthcoming from the May 31st arrest through the end of the trial about why this case in particular, about why Ms. Sahouri, they wanted to take her through trial and they said, all we have is speculation because all that was said from DA it will come out in trial and it turns out the jury very quickly acquitted her on both counts.

Matt: Kirsten, Sahouri is just one of several reporters that you mentioned that will be on trial this year. What are some of the other notable cases that we should be looking out for?

Kirsten: Well, we hope that nobody else goes to trial. There are about a dozen actually journalists who are still facing charges from covering protests last summer. Those 12 realists, they are there in the hearing stages. Right now, there are no other trials set, but we know one good example is a freelance reporter, Richard Cummings is his name, and this week he also had a hearing. Originally, he had three charges against him. Two of those have been dropped, but the failure to disperse again, the same one that you heard with Andrea Sahouri's trial, failure to disperse has still not been dropped against Richard Cummings.

In fact, at his March 8th hearing, they just pushed it to April 20th. He was arrested June 1st, one day after Ms. Sahouri, who was May 31st, still facing charges, not yet dropped. He'll be waiting until April 20th to find out what happens with those. That's one case that we're following, but at the US Press Freedom Tracker, we document all these cases and follow them through. We'll follow them through until we know whether or not the charges have been dropped or as you said, they may go to trial.

Matt: Kirsten, I'm trying to think of this from law enforcement's perspective for a moment, it just must be becoming harder and harder for police to distinguish in the fog of war during a protest, let's say between who were journalists documenting protests and who were protesters documenting protests. Everyone is filming it. It's now reporters with fedoras on the side with press cards. It may be used to be, there's a whole new range of news outlets.

Then from my experience, there's this antiquated uneven way that states and cities, and police approve reporters for press credentials. Then some reporters don't even wear press credentials because they feel like they can be targeted by some protestors because of that. Are there better ways to identify press in such circumstances so real reporters documenting history are not locked up like this?

Kirsten: That came up at the trial as well, but Andrea Sahouri wasn't wearing visible press credentials. It comes down to each newsroom and each journalist, how safe they feel wearing credentials while, as you said, in the fog of war, while documenting. We know that protests have traditionally been dangerous place for journalists, the old Al-Anon Rundeck that says press can't be used to yank somebody back. It's really up to each newsroom and like I said, each journalist to determine how safe they feel.

Some of the recommendations are to have press pass or press credentials on you, but maybe not either taped to your body or a place where you can get to them. Those are some recommendations coming out of our partner network. We saw it even after the protest last summer, as we headed into November, the general election, very tense in America, that different newsrooms were talking with their journalists and saying this is how we want to prepare you.

Some of them said, "We're taking right gear. We have our journalists in helmets and protective vests." Then other outlets will say, "Well, we want you to show press," and others will say, "I really don't feel safe. I'm going to have it on me, but undercover, just either coming from law enforcement or individuals, just for safety. Also, as you said, journalism itself, I love the fedora little feather or saying I'm impressed. That has changed. It's changed for the most part for the better, we have the ability to disseminate news wider and quicker. That's not always recognized with the integrated system of press passes.

Matt: Kirsten McCudden is the managing editor of the US Press Freedom Tracker. We'll be following these stories. Kirsten, thank you so much for joining us.

Kirsten: Thanks for having me, Matt.

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