Italian journalists union Fnsi and
guild OdG have filed a criminal complaint against unknown
persons to the State Attorney's Office in Rome demanding an
investigation into the case of at least one journalist who was
allegedly spied on through Paragon Solutions' military-grade
Graphite hacking software, the two organizations said on
Wednesday.
"We are dealing with facts that are not only violating the
criminal code but the Constitution itself: the press is free",
Fnsi secretary general Alessandra Costante said.
Meanwhile Odg president, Carlo Bartoli, said the complaint was
"an extraordinary act of which we perceive the gravity, but it
wasn't possible to wait longer: if the government does not
clarify this point, we can only appeal to the judiciary".
On Tuesday, Cabinet Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano told Lower
House Speaker Lorenzo Fontana in a letter that the government
has already made public all declassified information over the
'Graphite' military-grade hacking software of Israeli company
Paragon Solutions.
The letter said the Paragon case was discussed by Parliament's
COPASIR security committee, which oversees Italy's intelligence
agencies, and the Minister for Relations with Parliament Luca
Ciriani had provided to lawmakers "the only information that
could be divulged to the public" during a question time session
at the Lower House on February 12.
Every other aspect of the case is classified and can only be
discussed by the government within COPASIR and not reported
directly to parliament, the letter said.
Last week, Ciriani denied reports that Paragon Solutions, which
is reported to only work with state entities, had terminated its
client relationship with Italy amid a furore over the alleged
illegal use of its hacking software to spy on journalists and
activists.
Intelligence sources later told ANSA that Italy's intelligence
agencies and Paragon Solutions have agreed to suspend the system
until a due diligence process carried out by Parliament's
COPASIR security committee and the National agency for
cybersecurity is completed.
Migrant-rescue NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans founder and
operations chief Luca Casarini and the editor-in-chief of online
investigative news outlet Fanpage, Francesco Cancellato, were
reported to be among the victims in Italy.
On Wednesday, OdG president Bartoli said "very few subjects have
access" to the software and "therefore in the journalism rule of
the five Ws two are missing: the who and why" and "they must
come out".
The president of Fnsi Vittorio di Trapani also noted that "we
know that at least one journalist was spied on" and that he
learned about it "thanks to a communication through WhatsApp, so
he wasn't alerted by an authority" but by the chat service.
"We also know that he was spied on through the Paragon system
and that the Paragon system is exclusively used by state
entities", he noted, adding that either the Italian or a foreign
state had been involved although, "in spite of initial denials,
the suspension of the contract between Paragon and the Italian
government gives us a piece of evidence" and that "we are not
aware that any type of authorization was provided by the
judiciary on this type of espionage activity".
The Fnsi and Odg also urged all journalists to alert the two
organizations if they receive a message that their phones have
been targeted so they can be included in the complaint.
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