Journalists demand SC-minitored probe into pegasus surveillance

New Delhi: National press organisations on Thursday demanded a Supreme Court-minitored probe into the reported surveillance on journalists, members of judiciary, ministers, parliamentarians and activists through pegasus spyware of an Israeli company.

Expressing concen over the undermining of democracy through such acts of snooping on citizens of the county, the Press Club of india, Editors Guild, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Association, IUJ, Delhi Union of Journalists and various other press organisations demanded that the Government clear the air on the issue.

”We believe such acts of snooping on citizens undermine democracy. It is, therefore, incumbent on the government to put an end to obfuscation of details and to come clean on the use of Pegasus spyware,” they said.

Mounting such surveillance on citizens is a gross misuse of state powers and national security cannot be the sheild for for such unrestricted surveillance, a resolution passed by the press bodies in their meeting at the Press Club of India said. The meeting was called in the wake of the expose done by the ‘Pegasus Project’, a collaborative investigation of various media platforms across the world which claimed that many governments. including the Government of India used a spyware made by Israeli company to snoop on its citizens.

”The use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on Indian citizens and groups undermines India’s sovereignty, and it is necessary that the Government of India should intervene decisivley and clarify how and why this was done,” the resolution said.

The meeting was attended by a large number of senior journalists and activists from varuious organisations.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM