(New Delhi) The Indian government recently targeted high-profile journalists with Pegasus spyware, say Amnesty International and the Washington Postin a joint investigation published Thursday.
“Increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of illegal surveillance simply for doing their work, as well as other tools of repression, such as imprisonment under draconian laws , smear campaigns, harassment and intimidation,” said Donncha O Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty’s Security Lab.
The report discusses the cases of journalists Siddharth Varadarajan (The Wire) and Anand Mangnale (The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), whose analysis of their iPhone revealed traces of the presence of Pegasus.
The attack dates back to October 2023 for Siddharth Varadarajan, already targeted by spyware in 2018, according to the NGO.
Indian media reported in November that the country’s cybersecurity services were investigating allegations of wiretapping by opposition politicians, who received a warning message from Apple about “attackers” state-sponsored.
In 2021, 17 international media outlets revealed that Pegasus software, designed by the Israeli company NSO, had been used to spy on the phones of hundreds of politicians, journalists, human rights activists and business leaders. company around the world.
The Indian government was accused in 2021 of using Pegasus to monitor political opponents, activists and journalists. He had denied these accusations.