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A collaborative investigation into the Pegasus spyware, based on information consulted by the French association Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International and shared with a multitude of publications, has revealed a list of potential targets for surveillance.
The phone numbers of more than 40 Indian journalists are on a leaked list of potential targets for surveillance. Forensic tests have confirmed that some of them were successfully spied on by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware.
Although the Indian government found itself at the heart of a spy scandal that caused a stir across politics, coverage in the mainstream press fell short. The government blocked questions about whether it sanctioned the surveillance.
Media commentators say the use of military-grade spyware from the Israeli group NSO by the world’s largest democracy to hack the phones of investigative journalists is the final nail in journalism’s coffin in India.
The Wire founders among the targets
The leaked database of potential surveillance targets includes the phone numbers of two founding editors of The Wire, a news portal, its diplomatic editor, and two of its regular contributors.
“The Indian government has been silent so far. It is all the more surprising that they did not answer the questions of the Indian parliament correctly. The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior did not say a word … even a general declaration that this spyware is a threat to democracy and must be capped, “an editor-in-chief MK Venu told RFI. founder.
Today, senior journalists approached the Supreme Court of India to request an investigation by a sitting judge or former court judge into allegations of the use of Pegasus spyware to monitor journalists, activists and d ‘others.
They argued that such targeted surveillance using military-grade software is a grossly disproportionate infringement of the right to privacy.
Heated debate in a tough industry
The investigation comes at a time of heated and polarizing debate in India’s fiercely competitive news industry.
Many Indian journalists hope that this controversy will be a wake-up call for Indian journalism and that the authenticity of the information should not be compromised.
India is considered “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists trying to do their job properly,” according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The NGO painted a very dark picture of journalism in India after Narendra Modi came to power.
RSF ranked India 142nd out of 180 countries, below the United Arab Emirates, Myanmar and Hungary, in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Journalists in India face “all kinds of attacks, including police violence, ambushes by political activists and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials,” according to RSF.
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