EDITORS GUILD MOVES TOP COURT OVER SNOOPING

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to seek an independent investigation into the alleged purchase and use of Israeli spyware Pegasus in India to target phones of journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even ministers. “The Pegasus cyber attacks have raised severe questions as to the integrity of democratic institutions and the political process... If unaddressed, this can shake the public faith in democratic processes,” EGI’s petition said.

EGI ALSO ASKED THE TOP COURT TO ORDER THE UNION GOVERNMENT TO PRODUCE CONTRACTS OR DEALS WITH FOREIGN COMPANIES

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to seek an independent investigation into the alleged purchase and use of Israeli spyware Pegasus in India to target phones of journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even ministers.

EGI also asked the top court to order the Union government to produce contracts or deals with foreign companies for supply of spyware, hacking or electronic surveillance which has been used, whether authorised or not, on Indian citizens”.

“The Pegasus cyber attacks have raised severe questions as to the integrity of several democratic institutions and the political process. Amongst names on the list of potential targets is included a former Election Commissioner (Ashok Lavasa), several members of the Opposition, and political strategists. If unaddressed, this can shake the public faith in democratic processes, and create a chilling effect, which is poisonous to the health of any democracy,” EGI’s petition, reviewed by HT, said.

The guild’s petition said surveillance of journalists curtails their ability to “expose governmental incompetence” and “raises grave concerns of abuse of office”.

It is not clear if the Supreme Court will hear the guild’s petition on August 5 when Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is expected to take up the bunch of petitions filed earlier that also sought an independent probe into the alleged use of the military-grade spyware.

Among those who have already filed petitions for an independent probe are five journalists, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shataksi, who were reported to be in the potential list of alleged surveillance using the software.

In their petition, the five journalists asked the Supreme Court to declare the use of malware or spyware such as Pegasus as illegal and unconstitutional.

Tuesday’s petition by EGI said: “Freedom of the press relies on non-interference by the government and its agencies in reporting of journalists, including their ability to securely and confidentially speaking with sources, investigate abuse of power and corruption, expose governmental incompetence, and speak with those in opposition to the government”.

The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers that were potentially targeted by the Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software.

It said a forensic analysis of 10 of the targets proved they had been hacked or that there had been attempts to do so and the presence of a number on this list does not indicate the individual’s phone was hacked — just that it was of interest.

According to this consortium, Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning a phone into a pocket spy.

NSO says its software is sold only to government customers after vetting by Israeli authorities.

The Indian government has neither confirmed nor denied that it used Pegasus and has repeatedly ruled out any illegal surveillance in India.