Journalists under surveillance
At least 180 journalists have been selected for surveillance with the Pegasus spyware, a technology sold by the Israeli company NSO Group to governments around the world.
The spyware can be installed remotely on a smartphone without requiring any action from its owner. Once installed, it allows clients to take complete control of the device. NSO Group asserts that it “only collects data from the mobile devices of specific individuals, suspected to be involved in serious crime and terror.”
Yet, an unprecedented leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers selected since 2016 — which Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International had access to — suggests that the spyware is used much more carelessly than advertised. Phone numbers belonging to journalists were identified in 21 countries. The Forbidden Stories consortium, with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, was able to confirm some of those infections through a forensic analysis of the phones, when it was possible to contact the journalists securely. Many investigated crucial public interest matters and held their government accountable through their reporting.
The following list is not comprehensive and includes both cases in which the infection of the phone could be confirmed and cases where the phone could not be analyzed.

Cecilio Pineda
Mexico

Ferdinand Ayité
Togo

Roula Khalaf
United Kingdom

Bradley Hope
United Kingdom

Khadija Ismayilova
Azerbaijan

Taoufik Bouachrine
Morocco

Siddharth Varadarajan
India

Edwy Plenel
France

Szabolcs Panyi
Hungary

Yuriria Sierra
Mexico

Eric Bagiruwubusa
Rwanda

Alejandro Patrón
Mexico

Carmen Aristegui
Mexico

Souleimane Raissouni
Morocco

Vijaita Singh
India

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
India

Sevinc Vaqifqizi
Azerbaijan

Aboubakr Jamai
Morocco

Lenaïg Bredoux
France

Rafael Rodriguez Castañeda
Mexico

MK Venu
India

Turan Kışlakçı
Turkey

Jaspal Heran
India

Rosa Moussaoui
France

Maria Moukrim
Morocco

Jorge Carrasco
Mexico

Swati Chaturvedi
India

Alejandro Sicairos
Mexico

Smita Sharma
India

Hicham Mansouri
Morocco

Alejandra Xanic Von Betrab
Mexico

Ignacio Cembrero
Spain

Sushant Singh
India

Ali Amar
Morocco

Marcela Turati
Mexico

Carlos Ketohou
Togo

Ricardo Raphael
Mexico

Iftikhar Gilani
India

Jasur Sumerinli
Azerbaijan

Rohini Singh
India

David Dercsenyi
Hungary

Luis Hernández Navarro
Mexico

Alvaro Delgado
Mexico

Omar Brouksy
Morocco
The Pegasus Project
An exclusive leak of 50,000 records of phone numbers shows how NSO Group's spyware has been widely misused to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, as well as lawyers and heads of state.
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Media organizations in 11 countries joined forces to investigate this massive cybersurveillance scandal and publish dozens of stories in 8 languages.
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