The Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana (FNSI) and the Order of Journalists today announced that they are taking legal action with the Rome public prosecutor’s office to seek clarification regarding the surveillance of an Italian journalist. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) support this initiative and urge the Italian government to shed full light on this new spying scandal.
During a press conference on 19 February in Rome, the FNSI and the Order of Journalists strongly condemned the recent revelation of surveillance against at least one Italian investigative journalist. The revelation concerns Fanpage editor-in-chief Francesco Cancellato, whose WhatsApp was hacked using Graphite, a spyware produced by the Israeli company Paragon.
«We are faced with facts that not only violate the penal code, but the Constitution itself,” said FNSI General Secretary Alessandra Costante.
“This is an unbelievable act. We understand the gravity of it. We couldn’t wait any longer. If the government doesn’t clarify things at this stage, we have no option but to turn to the judiciary,”, said the President of the National Council of the Order of Journalists, Carlo Bartoli.
The Italian government denied any involvement and instructed the National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) to investigate the case. It was confirmed that at least seven Italian mobile phones had been infected.
In the EU, journalists and civil society members were targeted in at least 13 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Cancellato is the only journalist to have come forward publicly so far, and it is not yet known how long he has been under surveillance or whether his communications have been compromised.
“Some news is certain. At least one journalist has been spied on with the Paragon spyware. And it is equally certain that this spyware is only used by the authorities and state bodies. So we want to know who was spied on, by whom and why. Applying state secrecy to an act of this gravity is a mistake, a serious mistake,” added FNSI President Vittorio di Trapani.
“We are dismayed by the alarming developments in several countries, where spyware is being used to access journalists’ communications illegally. This new revelation raises many questions considering that Paragon markets its products exclusively to the intelligence and law enforcement agencies. We call on the Italian authorities to thoroughly investigate the surveillance into Francesco Cancellato and address all the questions that remain unanswered”, said the Federations.
In response to the upsurge in spying on reporters in recent years, the IFJ is leading a global campaign to fight against the surveillance of journalists. The IFJ calls on journalists who have been informed by WhatsApp that their devices have been hacked to contact [email protected] in confidence.
In December, the EFJ joined the Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe (CDT Europe) as well as twelve civil society organisations, many of which are members of the EU Spyware Coordination Group, in urging the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union to prioritise action against spyware misuse.
Source: EFJ
