The Committee to Protect Journalists, together with partners Access Now, Data Rights, and Human Constanta, filed an amicus brief on April 21 to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the use of spyware to silence journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.
The brief was filed in support of a group of cases involving the secret surveillance of Azerbaijani journalists, activists, and human rights defenders through the use of Pegasus spyware. The spyware can secretly turn a mobile phone into a 24-hour surveillance device, enabling the operator to remotely access the phone’s full contents and functions, as well as record video and audio in real time.
The submission demonstrates how this technology facilitates abusive surveillance by states and other actors, and the implications of such invasive surveillance technologies for journalists, activists, and human rights defenders around the world — particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Spyware specifically poses risks to reporting and the protection of sources. The brief also highlights the insufficiency of current European legislative and policy frameworks to prevent, deter, and remedy spyware abuses against journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, and the need for strict safeguards, independent oversight, and accessible remedies in cases of secret surveillance.
Read the full submission here.