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- Pegasus | phone hacking | Spying on Journalists | Governments around the world spy on 180 journalists, including 38 journalists from India, latest news and updates on phone hacking
10 hours ago
Governments around the world have taken the help of Israel’s software Pegasus to spy on journalists. This has been claimed in the report released after a joint investigation of 16 media groups on Sunday. Here, it has also been revealed that more than 180 reporters and editors have been kept on their watch list by governments around the world. These countries include India, where journalists criticizing the government and Prime Minister Modi were under surveillance.
According to the report, Pegasus clients in different parts of the world spy on journalists who have been exposing the government’s failures or criticizing its decisions. From Asia to America, many countries spied on journalists through Pegasus or kept them on watch lists. In the report, the names of some countries of the world have also been given, where the eyes of the government are on journalists. Topping the list is Azerbaijan, where 48 journalists were on a government watch list. In India this figure is 38.
How many journalists in which country
- Azerbaijan – The government is monitoring at least 48 journalists uncovering repression and corruption in the country.
- Morocco – At least 38 journalists are on a watch list for criticizing the government’s corruption and human rights violations.
- UAE – At least 12 journalists are being monitored, including the editor of the Financial Times and an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
- India – 38 journalists, including critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were being monitored in the country.
- Apart from these, governments in Mexico, Hungary, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Rwanda also spied on journalists.
Pegasus got the numbers wrong
After this list surfaced, Pegasus’ parent company NSO Group has called it an international conspiracy. The company said, ‘The list of countries using Pegasus is completely wrong. Many of them are not even Pegasus clients.
The NSO Group has also rubbished the report released on Sunday on phone hacking. The NSO statement said, “The report is replete with miscalculations and unconfirmed theories. This report is not based on solid facts. The details given in the report are far from reality.
Pegasus software works like this
Through Pegasus, a link is sent to the phone of the target person through SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage (on iPhone) or any other means. This link is sent with a message that the target clicks on it once. Spyware gets activated in the phone with just one click. Once activated, it breaks into the phone’s SMS, email, WhatsApp chat, contact book, GPS data, photo and video library, calendar, etc.
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