Italy: New case of journalist targeted with Graphite spyware confirms widespread use of unlawful surveillance

Rome: Responding to the publication of a Citizen Lab report identifying Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino and another who has chosen to remain anonymous, as the latest targets of Paragon’s spyware in Europe, Elina Castillo Jiménez, Advocacy and Policy Advisor on targeted surveillance at Amnesty International, said:

“The discovery that Paragon’s highly invasive Graphite spyware has been unlawfully used against yet another journalist in Italy, Ciro Pellegrino – adding to a list of other targets – confirms the rampant widening and systemic pattern of spyware abuse in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe.

“While the recent Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (COPASIR) report confirms that Italy’s intelligence services used highly-invasive Graphite spyware to target activists, it sought to justify the use on national security grounds. It also denied the targeting of journalist Francesco Cancellato. This new finding that another Italian journalist has been targeted with Graphite spyware, raises more questions.

“The use of spyware against activists and journalists by Italian authorities and the lack of transparency and cooperation undermine international norms that Italy is bound by and raises serious concerns about its commitment to the Pall Mall Process and its Code of Practice for States, which seeks to stop the abuse of commercial spyware which undermine freedom of expression.

“We urge Italian authorities to fully disclose the details of these targeting operations and to facilitate pathways for reparation to the victims. When governments fail to respond adequately to credible allegations of surveillance abuse, they send a dangerous message that impunity is the norm”

Ciro Pellegrino, a journalist at Fanpage, joins a list of Italian journalists and human rights defenders targeted with Paragon’s Graphite spyware including journalist Francesco Cancellato, and Mediterranea Saving Humans founder Luca Casarini and co-founder Dr Giuseppe “Beppe” Caccia. David Yambio, the founder of Refugees in Libya organisation, has also been targeted.

Following the Italian parliamentary committee’s report confirming the use of Graphite spyware by both Italy’s foreign and domestic intelligence services, Paragon announced that it had cancelled Italy’s contract because the Italian authorities declined to use a technical process to confirm if its Graphite spyware was used to target Cancellato, whose case ignited the ongoing scandal. COPASIR has responded to deny knowledge of Paragon’s offer of assistance to investigate the targeting of Cancellato.

Graphite is a highly invasive spyware capable of covertly accessing the most intimate and sensitive data on an individual’s phone and cannot be independently audited. This intrusive tool can never be human rights compliant and should be banned.