Iowa journalist arrested covering BLM protest acquitted

Jury acquits Andrea Sahouri after less than two-hour deliberation over charges decried as infringement of press freedom.

An Iowa jury has acquitted a journalist who was pepper-sprayed and arrested by police while covering a protest in a case that critics have derided as an attack on press freedom and an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. After deliberating for less than two hours, the six-member jury on Wednesday unanimously found Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri not guilty on misdemeanour charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts. The jury also acquitted her former boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, of the same charges after a three-day trial in Des Moines.