I don't think they meant to imply that all people who imprison reporters are definitionally fascist, but that fascists definitely imprison reporters as a matter of course. The claim was that accusing someone of imprisoning reporters of being fascist is "ultra far fetched". But if imprisoning reporters is something that fascists are wont to do, then it doesn't seem to me that questioning if these people are fascist is "ultra far fetched". You could also want to know if they were socialists if that's the thing you believe socialists do.