An investigation revealed that the phone of Galina Timchenko, an exiled Russian journalist who heads independent news website Meduza, was infected by NSO Group’s Pegasus surveillance spyware while she was in Germany earlier this year. The infection took place shortly after Russia designated Meduza as an “undesirable” organization – a measure that banned the outlet from operating on Russian territory.
“Journalists and their sources are not free and safe if they are spied on,” said Gulnoza Said, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “This attack on Timchenko underscores that governments must implement an immediate moratorium on the development, sale, and use of spyware technologies.”
On September 14, over 200 journalists wrote to members of the European Parliament, calling on them to introduce an absolute ban on surveillance of journalists through spyware in the upcoming European Media Freedom Act.
CPJ and these journalists’ advocacy aims to strengthen the final text of the draft EU law to protect journalists against abusive spyware, and to safeguard and support independent public media.
Spyware is not the only threat to journalists’ digital privacy. On September 13, CPJ joined a latter urging countries to reject the European Union’s draft Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, which could force companies to scan everyone’s private digital communications on behalf of governments all the time. Tech companies would be able to break end-to-end encryption, jeopardizing journalists’ ability to protect their sources and violating the right to confidential communications.
Pegasus spyware found on exiled Russian journalist’s phone
