Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Matinyarare
With the increase in the manufacture of consent and censorship by Western governments to maintain their world order since Covid-19, prominent American TV anchor Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President, Vladimir Putin is unlikely to be aired.
The US government is likely to invoke draconian laws to muzzle Tucker’s interview with Putin.
1. The first law they are likely to use is the Smith Act, which prohibits US citizens or residents from partnering with foreign powers to violently or forcefully remove their government. In many ways, the US government perceives Russian ideology as opposed to their national ideology and interests, which, if promoted to Americans, could persuade US citizens to oppose their government’s foreign policy position or advocate for regime change due to the influence of a Russian worldview.
2. They also have FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), which prohibits American citizens from advancing foreign interests or ideas inside the US to influence US citizens, politicians and policy on behalf of foreign governments, without registering as agents of a foreign government with the Department of Justice.
According to this loosely-worded act, for Tucker to propagate Russian messages that may influence American policy and public sentiment, he and the Russian government must both be registered with the Department of Justice (as agent and principal) and the material or message they seek to distribute inspected by the Department of Justice.
FARA has seen increased use over the past ten years, with the US government even charging sixteen Russians in 2017 for using the internet to influence American citizens on behalf of the Russian government without registering with the Department of Justice.
In 2017, a federal district court in Florida held that a company that agreed to broadcast a government-owned news agency’s radio programmes was required to register under FARA because it was acting as a “publicity agent
3. Additionally, there is the Communist Control Act, which prohibits any US citizen from belonging to the communist party or advancing communism or Russian ideology in America because communism was/is seen as a form of subversion or opposition to the liberal (capitalist colonial) values of US democracy. For that reason, communism or Russian ideology is outlawed and a punishable offence in the United States.
It is perceivable that the US government may interpret Tucker’s coverage of Putin’s very persuasive arguments that are opposed to US policy, as a promotion of Russian ideology or communism, which that government is likely to use this law to prevent.
4. The Logan Act prohibits American nationals from negotiating American interests with foreign governments without US government authority.
By Tucker going to meet an influential person like Putin and then broadcasting his thoughts and foreign policy to US citizens and state machinery, it may be interpreted as Tucker giving Putin a megaphone to pitch his foreign policy to the US Congress, judiciary and government, to influence their policies.
All the above laws are likely to be brought to bear on Tucker Carlson to discourage him from releasing his interview with Putin.
Worse still, he might actually be prohibited from airing the programme until it has been vetted, censored and approved by the Department of Justice and the CIA.
This interview by Tucker Carlson will be a test of how deeply the precepts of free speech and freedom of the press are respected by the US government and people.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter