The Citizen Lab today confirmed that three European journalists, including two Italians were targeted with Paragon’s Graphite mercenary spyware. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is calling on the governments concerned and the European Union to shed full light on these illegal spying operations which compromise democracy.
On 1 February 2025, it was revealed that Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of Italian news outlet Fanpage, was among more than 90 individuals worldwide to have had their WhatsApp hacked using Graphite, a military-grade zero-click spyware sold by Israel-based Paragon Solutions. Citizen Lab researchers today said they found new evidence that two more journalists, Italian reporter Ciro Pellegrino, head of the Naples newsroom at Fanpage, and a prominent European journalist who has requested to remain anonymous, were also targeted using the same mercenary spyware.
On 9 June 2025, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Paragon had offered to assist the Italian government in investigating the case of Francesco Cancellato, an offer that they say was rejected by the Italian government. Paragon also said that they had unilaterally terminated Italy’s contracts in February. The company explained it sells its spyware only to democratic countries and that its terms of service forbid intelligence agencies to use the spyware against journalists or members of civil society..
“It is unacceptable that after months we still do not know who spied on these journalists and why,” reacted Vittorio di Trapani, President of the National Federation of the Italian Journalists (FNSI).
“We supported in February the initiative by the FNSI and the National Order of Journalists to file a criminal complaint over the spyware hacks with the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office,” added EFJ President Maja Sever. “But this is not enough! The EFJ strongly condemns the inaction of the Italian authorities, who do not seem to want to shed light on these illegal spying operations”.
The EFJ calls on the European Parliament, which will debate the Paragon spying scandal on 16 June, to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the Graphite spyware case, and to assure strict implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which sets out new protections for journalists inside the bloc from undue surveillance.
Source: EFJ
