Hungary’s Szabolcs Panyi on how Pegasus surveillance has hindered his reporting
It took five months for Hungary to acknowledge publicly that it had bought the Pegasus spyware allegedly used to hack the phones of hundreds around the world. In November, Lajos Kósa, a top official from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, acknowledged the purchase in a media interview after a parliamentary meeting; Minister of the Interior Sándor…
‘A high-profile action’: Lawyer Douglas Jacobson on what U.S. export restrictions could mean for Israel’s NSO Group
On November 3, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it had imposed export controls on the Israeli NSO Group, saying the company “developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target” journalists and others. The move represented a relatively new use for the Entity List for Malicious Cyber Activities, a…
Lawyer Apar Gupta: With Pegasus probe, India’s Supreme Court is pushing the government to answer to journalists
On October 27, India’s Supreme Court ordered a “thorough inquiry” into the government’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware to monitor journalists and others by secretly surveilling their cell phones. The Israeli company NSO Group, which created Pegasus, says it sells only to official law enforcement agencies. Journalists in India have been aware of the threat…
US blacklisting of NSO Group a welcome first step to curb spyware abuse
Washington, D.C., November 3, 2021 — The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the U.S. Department of Commerce’s addition of the Israel-based technology company NSO Group to the Entity List for Malicious Cyber Activities today. “CPJ welcomes the Department of Commerce’s decision to impose export controls on NSO Group for developing and supplying Pegasus spyware to…
‘There is no private life’: Three Togolese journalists react to being selected for spyware surveillance
When Komlanvi Ketohou fled Togo in early 2021, he left behind his home, his family, and his cell phone that the gendarmerie seized when they arrested and detained him over a report published by his newspaper, L’Independant Express. In July, Ketohou, who goes by Carlos, learned that the phone number connected to the device they…
Pegasus Project revelations show added layer of risk for corruption reporters
Exposing those who abuse power for personal gain is a dangerous activity. Nearly 300 journalists killed for their work since CPJ started keeping records in 1992 covered corruption, either as their primary beat, or one of several. The risk was reaffirmed this month with the release of the Pegasus Project, collaborative reporting by 17 global…
CPJ joins call for moratorium on surveillance technology targeting journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists this week joined more than 150 human rights groups and independent experts in calling on states to implement an immediate moratorium on the sale, transfer, and use of surveillance technology following revelations that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has been used to spy on journalists around the world. The Pegasus Project,…
WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart: The spyware industry is undermining freedom
Will Cathcart is the chief executive of WhatsApp, the downloadable messaging app used by millions around the world as a primary means of communication. WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption, meaning messages shared via the platform are, under normal circumstances, highly secure—a feature that has made it attractive for journalists, human rights defenders, and other vulnerable users,…
Azerbaijani journalist Sevinj Vagifgizi was ‘astonished’ to learn of Pegasus spyware on phone
Azerbaijani authorities have long had a firm grip on the media by imprisoning, harassing, and persecuting journalists both at home and abroad as well as blocking their websites. Now authorities are alleged to have used a new tool in their quest to muzzle independent reporting: spyware. Several Azerbaijani journalists have been named in the collaborative…
Investigative reporter Bradley Hope: Pegasus spyware revelations a ‘wake-up call for journalists’
Bradley Hope was in Abu Dhabi in 2009, the year the BlackBerry devices overheated. “If you put it next to your face it would almost burn,” he told CPJ in a phone interview. The BBC that year reported that a UAE telecom company had prompted local BlackBerry owners to install a rogue surveillance update disguised…