Status: 07/19/2021 7:29 p.m.
Hungarian investigative reporters were also spied on using “Pegasus” software. Human rights activists and the opposition are outraged: They fear a crippling “ice age” for the country’s news media.
From Srdjan Govedarica,
ARD studio Vienna
Journalist Szabolcs Panyi says that the surveillance software “Pegasus” has been active on his phone: “You can’t do something like that for several reasons. As a journalist, the media law theoretically gives me the right to protect my sources. And that right has now certainly been violated. Quite apart from my privacy.”
Panyi works for “Direkt 36”, an independent Hungarian investigative portal. He has made a name for himself as a discoverer, for example by illuminating the political and economic entanglements between Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government and Russia and China. Panyi suspects that his monitoring with the “Pegasus” software could have something to do with such research: “It seems that the research that I carried out on the Russian-run International Investment Bank drew my observers’ attention to me” , he says. “I think my surveillance started after I sent official inquiries about this bank to two ministries.”
Who ordered the surveillance in Hungary?
A journalist consortium that also includes NDR and WDR found Panyi’s phone number and that of a direct colleague on a list of spying targets; also the contacts of some suspected criminals, but also those of high-ranking media managers, lawyers or opposition politicians.
The surveillance software “Pegasus” is produced by the Israeli company NSO. A former NSO employee confirmed to the journalists behind the “Pegasus Project” that Hungary was or still is one of the company’s customers. However, it is unclear who ordered the surveillance operation in Hungary.
Amnesty International technology specialists also evaluated the cell phones on which the surveillance software was found. “We don’t know exactly who the client of this Israeli NSO group was. But several things show that in this case it could be the Hungarian state,” says Aron Demeter from the Amnesty office in Budapest. “On the one hand, the NSO group states that it only has contracts with states or state authorities. On the other hand, the circle of those affected that we have known so far shows that there is no private person or private company in the background.”
Mood of uncertainty in Hungary?
The Orban’s government has only insisted that it does not know anything about the data collection. Hungary is a constitutional state – in each individual case, the applicable legal rules are followed. Even for the media close to the government in Hungary, the topic is at best a marginal note. The Hungarian opposition sees it differently and sharply criticizes Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidezs party.
“In my opinion, this is a stab in the back of freedom of the press and democracy,” says Ana Orosz of the Momentum movement. “In my opinion, such means were only used in the darkest times in history. It is very outrageous that Fidesz has fallen so low.”
Now the National Security Committee of the Parliament in Budapest is to deal with the issue. The committee is headed by the opposition – and if Fidesz stays away from the committee, it will be seen as a clear answer to the surveillance allegations. A date for the committee meeting has not yet been set. One way or another: the mere suspicion that wiretapping is taking place on a large scale creates a mood of uncertainty, says Demeter from the Amnesty office in Budapest.
“All such observations – especially if they are confirmed – can increase self-censorship. It can cause an ice age in the press,” he fears. “It would be bad if people no longer dare to talk to journalists” – or if journalists no longer dared to report on certain topics.