Spyware

Brussels, June 11, 2026—Ahead of a meeting with Hungarian officials on June 16, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges European Union member states to encourage Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s new government to rebuild the national media landscape by fully aligning future reforms with EU law and recommendations.  Magyar’s Tisza party won April elections, ousting Viktor…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 10 other civil society organizations in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday calling for the safeguarding of encryption from NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to prevent the surveillance of journalists and other human rights defenders.  In the brief, which was led by…

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…

Journalist Peter Maseke Mwita has a keener interest than most in Friday’s upcoming ruling on the constitutionality of Kenya’s cybercrime law — legislation that could see him jailed for up to 10 years over a mistaken WhatsApp message. On February 27, a three-judge court of appeal bench is due to rule in a case brought…

Angolan journalist and lawyer Teixeira Cândido wants to know who targeted him with spyware, and he wants justice. “First and foremost, we must seek to find out who the entities are that have acquired these spyware tools,” Cândido told CPJ, as findings published by Amnesty International’s Security Lab show that a malicious link sent in…

New York, September 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely alarmed by the installation of spyware on two Kenyan filmmakers’ phones while the devices were in police custody, and calls on authorities to drop a case against them and two other filmmakers and ensure that journalists are not further targeted for surveillance. Forensic analysis…

Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s visit to Saudi Arabia on May 13, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 16 other human rights organizations condemned the kingdom‘s deteriorating press freedom, including journalists‘ arrests, travel bans, surveillance, and disinformation aimed at silencing the media. The groups called on Saudi authorities to release all detained journalists, lift…

Berlin, May 6, 2025—CPJ calls on Italian authorities to step up efforts to investigate spyware attacks against journalists at the news site Fanpage.it, as reporter Ciro Pellegrino became the second member of staff to reveal that his phone had been targeted this year. “The repeated targeting of Fanpage.it journalists suggests a pattern of surveillance aimed…

Berlin, February 10, 2025 — Italian authorities should thoroughly investigate the targeting of the editor-in-chief of the news site Fanpage.it Francesco Cancellato’s cell phone with spyware via the WhatsApp messaging app and punish the perpetrators, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “The attack on investigative journalist Francesco Cancellato with Paragon spyware is a serious…

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined eight human rights and digital rights organizations on October 15 to provide comments to the U.S. Commerce Department in response to its proposed rules to strengthen surveillance technology export regulations. The joint comments assess and offer recommendations for the Commerce Department to help curb the proliferation of such surveillance…