Pegasus

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Patricia Espinosa, the sister of Rubén Espinosa, a photographer murdered in 2015, and Alejandro Encinas, undersecretary for human rights, population, and migration, speak at CPJ's press freedom summit. (Ian Garciafigueroa)

Press freedom summit urges Mexico to reform journalist protections

On June 18, more than 400 people converged in Mexico City for CPJ’s Mexico Press Freedom Summit. Energized by a sense that the country is at a point of profound political change under the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the conference delved into the threats for Mexican journalists.

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Moroccan investigative journalist Omar Radi, who at the time worked for the website Le Desk, the website's headquarters in Casablanca, Morocco, on September 18, 2015. Radi and other independent journalists told CPJ about a climate of pervasive surveillance and harassment in the country. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Moroccan independent journalists describe climate of pervasive surveillance, harassment

In March 2015, Hicham Mansouri emailed an anti-malware company, suspicious of possible signs that someone was able to access his device remotely, without permission. He remembers exchanging a few messages with the software company, but the correspondence was interrupted after a few days, when around 10 police officers in civilian clothes arrived at his home…

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A woman uses her iPhone in front of the building housing NSO Group on August 28, 2016, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, Israel. The company has come under increased scrutiny for the alleged use of its spyware tool, Pegasus, to target journalists. (AFP/Jack Guez)

NSO Group responds to spyware abuse allegations with spin

Entering the terms “NSO Group,” “journalists,” and “spying” into a Google search from a workstation in New York City recently produced a sponsored search result at the top of the page. The NSO Group manufactures some of the world’s most sophisticated and high-profile spyware, and its sponsored link invites readers to a slick website touting…

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Griselda Triana, the wife of slain journalist Javier Valdez, attends his memorial service in Culiacan, in Sinaloa state, Mexico, on May 16, 2017. On March 20, 2019, a report by Canadian research group Citizen Lab found that Triana was targeted by Pegasus spyware soon after Valdez's murder, in an apparent spying attempt. (Reuters/Jesus Bustamante)

Widow of slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez targeted by spyware

Mexico City, March 20, 2019–Griselda Triana, the widow of slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas, was targeted by spyware identified as Pegasus in 2017 in an apparent spying attempt, according to a new report released today by Canadian research group Citizen Lab.

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A Saudi Arabia flag and a surveillance camera are seen in the backyard of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Saudi actors are believed to have spied on phone calls and messages between murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi and his friend, Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

How the Saudis may have spied on Jamal Khashoggi

Omar Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi Arabian dissident, can still remember the time Jamal Khashoggi, the storied Saudi journalist, unfollowed him on Twitter. It was in 2015, and Khashoggi had been tapped to head a new TV network called Al-Arab, a partnership between a member of the royal family and Bloomberg. Abdulaziz started haranguing Khashoggi online,…

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Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui holds her mobile phone during a press conference in Mexico City in 2017 about governments using spyware to target journalist. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Pegasus spyware used to target journalists, civil society

[EDITOR’S NOTE: See CPJ’s updated safety advisory here https://cpj.org/2019/11/cpj-safety-advisory-journalist-targets-of-pegasus-.php.] In a report published on September 18, Citizen Lab said it had detected Pegasus, a spyware created for mobile devices, in over 45 countries. Pegasus, which transforms a cellphone into a mobile surveillance station, could have been deployed against a range of journalists and civil society…

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