You may recall my article posted March 8th about a Des Moines Register reporter, Andrea Sahouri, who was arrested last May just for doing her job as a reporter, covering protests over the death of George Floyd.  Sahouri was acquitted by a jury of the two misdemeanor charges against her, which were failure to disperse and interference with official acts. Had she been found guilty, Sahouri could have been fined and jailed for up to 30 days.

Although the Iowa jury did the right thing in finding Sahouri not guilty, the simple fact that this case went to trial at all is disconcerting for anyone with an interest in getting to truth and facts in journalism.

Tom Jones writes for the highly-respected nonprofit organization, the Poynter Institute, which publishes the Tampa Bay Times in Florida and runs fact-checking organizations around the world, including PolitiFact in the United States.  Mr. Jones has written a thoughtful piece going into factual detail about the Sahouri case, and why this is not all good news for good journalism.

You can read the Tom Jones piece at this link.