Wiretapped: Combatting the Use of Spyware and Surveillance Against Journalists
Channel: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Date: 2023-05-12

Almost two years ago in July 2021, Forbidden Stories, a network of journalists led by investigative reporters Sandrine Rigaud and Laurent Richard together with Amnesty International, uncovered the largest surveillance scandal in recent history. With the help of a new kind of spyware called "Pegasus", manufactured and distributed by the Israeli NSO Group, phones of victims could be spied on, location data could be retrieved, messages read, and conversations intercepted. The software operated silently in the background without the victims noticing their phones were wiretapped. By then, "Pegasus" had been sold in more than 20 countries, including autocratic regimes but also EU Member States. Over 50,000 potential victims were identified. Among them journalists, human rights activists, and government critics who became targets of their own governments. This unprecedented attack on privacy and on freedom of the press generated outrage around the world.

Since then, we have seen wiretapping scandals involving spyware in Hungary, Poland, Greece, and Spain, in which journalists and politicians were targeted. In our digital age, spyware has thus become a new and unique weapon against critical voices and a serious threat to rule of law and basic democratic rights.

On World Press Freedom Day, we therefore want to discuss the threat spyware poses to our democracy and reflect on what the revelations by Forbidden Stories have achieved to date: Where do we stand almost two years later, with the use of spyware seemingly all the more ubiquitous? How can journalists and human rights activists protect themselves against these wiretapping techniques? Can a moratorium on – or a regulation of – spyware sales be enforced? What should we expect from the final report of the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee of Inquiry, which is due to be presented soon? Moreover, what sanctions mechanisms should be put in place against European governments that spy on their own citizens?

With:
- Laurent Richard, Founder and CEO, Forbidden Stories, Paris
- Hannah Neumann, MEP, peace and human rights spokesperson of the Greens/EFA Group, Member of the Pegasus Inquiry Committee (PEGA), Brussels
- Tasos Telloglou, Investigative Journalist, Athens

Host: Jan Philipp Albrecht, President, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin