Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, who was arrested during the Ferguson protests last year, has been formally charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer by the St. Louis County municipal court, reported Newsweek.
Lowery was detained in a McDonald's in Missouri while reporting on demonstrations that were initiated by a white police officer shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
Lowery failed to leave private property despite being asked to leave and also failed to comply with commands to exit the restaurant, reported The Washington Post.
"Charging a reporter with trespassing and interfering with a police officer when he was just doing his job is outrageous," said Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post. "There was absolutely no justification for his arrest."
Lowery wrote his own account of the incident, where he states that his arrest stems from the contradictory instructions received from the officers regarding which direction to exit the restaurant.
The news of the charges came at the same time as protests began to surge once again in Ferguson. Protestors participated in a day of demonstrations to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown that took place in Ferguson last August.
When asked to comment on the charges, a spokesperson for the St. Louis County executive did not respond, reported The New York Times.
