Pegasus espionage: Supreme Court to hear journalists’ plea on August 5
Five journalists have moved the Supreme Court in the Pegasus case. They say that the unauthorized use of surveillance by government agencies has violated their fundamental rights and they have been directly affected by the use of Pegasus spyware. Petitioner – Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, S. N. M. Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh, and Ipsa Shatakshi – urged the apex court to direct the Center to release all materials and documents and all disclosures in respect of all investigations, authorizations and orders relating to the use of Pegasus. Issue.
The petitioners alleged that they were subjected to intense intrusion and hacking by the government or any other third party.
Earlier in July, veteran journalist N. Ram and Shashi Kumar had moved the apex court seeking a direction for an independent inquiry by a sitting or retired judge of the court into the alleged Pegasus snooping scandal.
Advocate M. L. Sharma and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas have also moved the apex court to probe the allegations of espionage.
Chief Justice N. A bench of V. Ramana and Surya Kant will hear cases related to Pegasus espionage on August 5.
The petition, filed through Advocate-on-Record Prateek Chadha, has cited the threat posed by this nature of surveillance to journalistic sources and whistleblowers. The petitioners have asked the apex court to intervene to ensure that the free press continues to exist and also demanded that a judicial oversight mechanism be set up to deal with any complaints on illegal breach of privacy and hacking.
The petitioners have insisted that action should be taken against all government officials responsible for such violations.
Journalists claimed that a forensic examination of his mobile phone conducted by Amnesty International showed that he was targeted using Pegasus malware.
The petition filed by Thakurta said, the petitioner fears that Pegasus’ attack on him and other journalists in India will deter confidential informers and whistle-blowers from coming forward and exposing wrongdoings at various levels of government. And as such, there will be a detrimental effect on transparency across governance.
