"First of all, it should be remembered that Putin is not just a president of an aggressor country, but he is wanted by the International Criminal Court and accused of genocide and war crimes," MEP Urmas Paet, who previously served as Estonia's foreign minister, told Newsweek.

we being free people can discern fact from fiction

Hmmm. I'm not sure recent history bears that out, at least with regard to US politics.

Where, exactly, should the line be draw then between “reporting” and “being a mouthpiece”.

Not sure. But that doesn't mean there isn't one, nor that it can't be apparent when it's been crossed.

The EU has good reason to fear anything that emboldens Putin or works in even the slightest to increase his chances of prevailing in Ukraine. It's quite clear that a victorious Russia is an existential threat to its neighbors. With all this discernment of fact that's going on, it seems like that should be fairly easy to understand.

push for platforms to not give airtime to hacks like Tucker.

How is this not exactly that?

The easier solution is to not grant the government that kind of censorship power,

To my knowledge he's not being prevented from sharing his beliefs, nor has the interview been banned, nor has he been imprisoned for any of this. Where's the censorship?

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

To my knowledge he’s not being prevented from sharing his beliefs, nor has the interview been banned, nor has he been imprisoned for any of this. Where’s the censorship?

The title of the article: Tucker Carlson Could Face Sanctions Over Putin Interview. They're not talking about Facebook refusing to host the video. They're talking about the EU government doing something about the fact that he interviewed Putin.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I read that. And I read the rest of the article, where they were very vague about what those might be aside from travel restrictions, said it could be a long time before anything happens if at all, and that the folks trying to do this don't have the power to do it alone.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Consider that optics matter just as much as the actual content of the sanctions. Even if it's basically a nothingburger of travel restrictions, he will play this up to his audience as being persecuted by The Establishment for speaking truth to power.

In other words, they're giving him what he wants. Or do you think he interviewed Putin just for fun? Or because he really likes him?

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 7 points 9 months ago

The so-called "state of Israel" is blatantly violating an ICJ order to cease their ongoing genocide in Palestine. Should it be illegal to interview Benyamin Netanyahu?