Worrying if this really doesn’t need judicial approval.

I started googling his name before I read the whole article and he is indeed identified there as Turkis and having a Turkish address, strange if that really isn’t true. And I was surprised to see that this was the Russian sanctions that they were talking about. For explanation for the sanctions they had:

Hüseyin Doğru is the founder and representative of AFA Medya A.Ş. which is a media company based in Istanbul. AFA Medya A.Ş. operates “RED”, which comprises a number of media platforms, and which has close financial and organisational connections with Russian state propaganda entities and actors, and shares deep structural ties, including interlinkages between, and rotation of, individual personnel with Russian state media organisations.

RED has used its media platforms – often publishing under “redstreamnet” or “thered.stream” – to systematically spread false information on politically controversial subjects with the intent of creating ethnic, political and religious discord amongst its predominantly German target audience, including by disseminating the narratives of radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas.

During a violent occupation of a German university by anti-Israel rioters, RED personnel coordinated with the occupiers to disseminate images of their vandalism – which included the use of Hamas symbols – through their online channels, thus providing them with an exclusive media platform, facilitating the violent nature of the protest.

Through AFA Medya, Hüseyin Doğru thus supports actions by the Government of the Russian Federation which undermine or threaten stability and security in the Union and in one or several of its Member States, including by indirectly supporting and facilitating violent demonstrations and engaging in coordinated information manipulation.

EU idea of “democracy” is fascinating.

Damn, the EU is trying to posture itself as the adult in the room, which it does seem to be in many cases, but then it does stuff like this.

This is why I like the USA’s first amendment - a near-absolute bar against government retaliation for speach.

The USA has been trying to find ways around that lately, but the courts have been pretty quick about affirming free speech.