CPJ calls on European Parliament to take global lead on ending spyware abuse
Brussels, March 8, 2022 – The European Parliament should ensure that an upcoming investigation into Pegasus and other spyware fulfills its ambitious scope and vision, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Wednesday, members of the European Parliament are set to vote on establishing a committee to investigate how EU member states have used…
‘The infections were constant:’ Julia Gavarrete among dozens of Salvadoran journalists targeted with Pegasus spyware
The day El Faro reporter Julia Gavarrete’s father passed away, her phone was infected with Pegasus spyware that could activate the microphone and camera, and read all her messages – one of multiple occasions her privacy was invaded with the tool over the course of several months. Gavarrete made this disturbing discovery while cooperating with…
CPJ joins statement condemning use of Pegasus spyware to target journalists in El Salvador
The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Salvadoran authorities to respond to the discovery of Pegasus spyware on cellphones belonging to at least 30 journalists in El Salvador, joining 14 organizations, media outlets, and individuals in a public statement available in English and Spanish. The statement identified “one of the most persistent and intensive…
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…
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan must advocate for press freedom in meetings with Saudi Arabia and UAE
New York, September 27, 2021 – U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan should advocate for an end to press freedom violations in Yemen and throughout the Persian Gulf region as he meets with leaders from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sullivan is traveling to the region…
‘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…
David Kaye on the Pegasus Project and why surveillance reform should reach beyond NSO Group and Israel
In 2020, then-United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye pressed Israeli firm NSO Group in a public letter for details about its human rights due diligence and assertions that Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi had not been targeted with its Pegasus spyware before his brutal 2018 murder. The group…