CPJ joins organisation urging USA to hold NSO Group accountable for spyware that surveilled journalists

In August 2022, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined human rights and press freedom organisations in separate actions demanding that the US government holds the NSO Group accountable for providing Pegasus spyware to governments that have secretly surveilled journalists around the world.

The Israeli-owned NSO Group claims that it only licenses its Pegasus spyware to government agencies investigating crime and terrorism, and that it should be immune from prosecution in US courts because it acted as an agent of foreign governments under the doctrine of sovereign immunity.

Nevertheless, according to CPJ, it is clear that their actions are malicious: ‘The evidence of the use of Pegasus spyware against human rights defenders, journalists, opposition parties, and state officials by repressive regimes continues to mount, contrary to NSO Group’s claim that their spyware is used as a tool for investigating criminal activity and terrorism.’