On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the new Frontline and Forbidden Films documentary, Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus. The two-part documentary investigates the powerful spyware Pegasus made by an Israeli company NSO Group, and how it was used to spy on journalists, activists and others.
In 2020, the journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International gained access to a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers. Sixteen media organizations, including Frontline, joined forces with Forbidden Stories to find the people connected to those numbers and learn more about the technology.
A year later, the Pegasus Project reporting consortium published its stunning findings. Pegasus had been sold to governments around the globe to spy on journalists, human rights activists, the wife and fiancée of the murdered Washington Post Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and others.
Guest:
Laurent Richard, award-winning documentary filmmaker, founder and executive director of Forbidden Stories, and co-author of the forthcoming book, Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy
Web Resources:
The Guardian: US supreme court lets WhatsApp pursue Pegasus spyware lawsuit
Wired: NSO Group Spyware Targeted Dozens of Reporters in El Salvador
