three editors of Indian Express – two current and one former – are among more than 40 journalists whose phone numbers are included in a leaked list of potential targets of surveillance by an “unknown agency”. Pegasus spyware, online news portal The Wire reported on Sunday. Its report was part of a global investigation by Paris-based Forbidden Stories by 17 media organizations drawing on the data.
The numbers of Deputy Editor Muzmil Jaleel, who reports on Jammu and Kashmir and internal security, and Ritika Chopra, Senior Assistant Editor, who covers the Election Commission and the Ministry of Education, appear in the leaked records.
Most of the names were targeted, as The Wire reported, between 2018 and 2019 – for the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections.
During that time, Chopra revealed divisions within the Election Commission over its response to complaints of violations of the election code of conduct, including complaints related to the then Prime Minister Narendra Modi and again. BJP President Amit Shah.
For that work, Chopra was awarded the International Press Institute (India) Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2020. Also on the list is Sushant Singh who covered defense and security for The Indian Express when his phone was an alleged target. Singh left the paper in August 2020 when he was the deputy editor.
Raj Kamal Jha, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, said, “The potential target for surveillance of our journalists is a violation of constitutional guarantees of freedom and privacy.” “These principles, repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court, are vital to the freedom, dignity and functioning of the press. The Indian Express Group is committed to defending these principles.”
Globally, the list includes 180 journalists, including Raula Khalaf, before taking over as editor of the Financial Times last year.
“The presence of a number in the database indicates its possible selection as a target for surveillance, but whether a phone was actually hacked and infected can only be established through forensic examination of the device.” Could — if the device in question is an iPhone that’s more easily done,” The Wire said.
The journalists who have been identified include Shishir Gupta, executive editor of Hindustan Times; India Today’s Sandeep Unnithan; Vijaya Singh, The Hindu; Rohini Singh, regular contributors to The Wire, J Gopikrishnan of The Pioneer and Swati Chaturvedi, a freelance journalist.
In The Wire, those targeted were founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu, for whom the report said, forensic analysis found evidence of their phones being infected Pegasus.
The list also includes journalists from The Washington Post, CNN, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Al Jazeera, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.
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