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Pegasus snoop list has 40 Indian journalists

A good chunk of the journalists who appear in the records are based out of the national capital and work with prominent organisations…reports Asian Lite News.

The Pegasus snoop list has 40 Indian journalists and forensic tests confirm presence of Pegasus spyware on some devices, The Wire reported.

Those on leaked list of potential targets include journalists at Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Wire, Indian Express, News18, India Today, Pioneer, besides freelancers, columnists, and regional media.

The presence of a phone number in the data does alone not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. However, the Pegasus Project, a consortium of international news organisations, believes the data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts.

Two founding editors of The Wire are on this list, as is its diplomatic editor and two of its regular contributors, including Rohini Singh. Singh’s number appears after she filed back-to-back reports on the business affairs of Home Minister Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, and Nikhil Merchant, a businessman who is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and while she was investigating the dealings of a prominent minister, Piyush Goyal, with businessman Ajay Piramal, The Wire said.

The number of former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh appears on the list in mid-2018, at a time when he was working on an investigation into the controversial Rafale aircraft deal with France, besides other stories. Digital forensics conducted on Singh’s current phone showed signs of Pegasus infection earlier this year.

The Wire said the list of journalists to emerge from the Pegasus Project’s reporting cannot be considered exhaustive list or even a representative sample of reporters subject to official snooping as it is limited to an analysis of one leaked dataset over a narrow time period and covering only one potential vector of surveillance, i.e. Pegasus.

A good chunk of the journalists who appear in the records are based out of the national capital and work with prominent organisations.

For instance, the leaked data shows that at least four current employees and one former employee of the Hindustan Times group were of potential interest to the Indian Pegasus client – executive editor Shishir Gupta, editorial page editor and former bureau chief Prashant Jha, defence correspondent Rahul Singh, former political reporter who covered the Congress Aurangazeb Naqshbandi, and a reporter in HT’s sister paper, Mint.

Indian Youth Congress protested on the spying case of the country’s journalists.

Other prominent media houses also had at least one journalist whose phone number appears in the leaked records. This includes Ritika Chopra (who covers education and the Election Commission) and Muzammil Jameel (who writes on Kashmir) of the Indian Express, Sandeep Unnithan (who covers defence and the Indian military) of India Today, Manoj Gupta (editor investigations and security affairs) at TV18, and Vijaita Singh, who covers the Home Ministry for The Hindu and whose phone contained traces of an attempted Pegasus infection.

At The Wire, those targeted were founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan and M.K. Venu, for whom specific forensic analysis showed evidence of their phones being infected by Pegasus. The number of Devirupa Mitra, The Wire’s diplomatic editor, also appears in the records.

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Pak journo taken off air for speaking against media curbs

This comes after Hamid Mir, the host of the flagship news program “Capital Talk”, raised concern about the safety of his colleagues…reports Asian Lite News

A popular news anchor in Pakistan has been taken off the air for three days after he spoke against the rising curbs on freedom of expression in the country.

This comes after Hamid Mir, the host of the flagship news program “Capital Talk”, raised concern about the safety of his colleagues, following the recent attack on reporter Asad Ali Toor.

Mir, who himself has survived assassination attempts said that he ready to go to any extent because “they” are threatening his family. “Nothing new for me. I was banned twice in the past. Lost jobs twice. Survived assassination attempts but cannot stop raising voice for the rights given in the constitution,” he tweeted.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists strongly condemned pressure applied to ban Hamid Mir from his show. “First journalists are attacked and when media persons protest against such attacks, the government employs fascist tactics to silence them.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also condemned the decision to take journalist Hamid Mir off the air. “That Mr Mir has been promptly silenced and his family allegedly threatened is now a tipping point for press freedom – and one that will not be resolved through the optics of law-making in the shape of the long-touted and heavily criticised journalists’ protection bill,” HRCP tweeted.

Meanwhile, the management of the channel where Hamid was employed, has confirmed to the media that Hamid Mir will not be able to host “Capital Talk” indefinitely.

According to Geo Administration sources cited by Daily News, Mir has been sent on leave for a few days.

Several Pakistani journalists have stepped forward to show solidarity with Mir. Pakistani journalist and political commentator Asma Sherazi said the channel management must clarify their position.

“If @HamidMirPAK is taken off air or banned from doing program on Geo News, more fingers will point towards the powerful establishment and the government while resounding the ‘words that he said’. Journalists of Pak stand with Hamid Mir. Geo management must clarify its position,” Shirazi, Winner of 2014 Peter Mackler Award of Courage and Ethical Journalism said in a tweet.

Recently, Pakistani journalist Asad Ali Toor, who is known for criticising the country’s establishment, was attacked at his apartment in Islamabad. He had said members of the country’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), could be behind the brutal attack on him.

In December last year, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a ‘White Paper on Global Journalism’ listed five countries, including Pakistan as the ‘Most Dangerous Countries for Practice of Journalism in the World’. As many as 138 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1990. (ANI)

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Barkha bags National Media Talent Award

Academy Chairman R.S Babu said Dutt was awarded for the work she undertook during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic…reports Asian Lite News.

Popular television journalist Barkha Dutt won the Kerala Media Academy’s National Media Talent Award 2020.

Academy Chairman R.S Babu said Dutt was awarded for the work she undertook during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Babu added that her news coverage during the pandemic was exemplary as she travelled almost every part of the country by road to cover the fallout when the first wave of the pandemic hit the nation.

He added that Dutt had put her own life at risk to do unbiased coverage.

The jury, under the chairmanship of veteran journalist Thomas Jacob along with Dr. Sebastian Paul, M P Achuthan, K.V Sudhakaran, Dr. Neethu Sona and Dr. Meena T Pillai, said that Dutt’s work during the period was exceptional and should be considered as an example for others.

Her report on the plight of the migrant laborers could not be denied by the government and it even caught the attention of the Apex court.

49-year-old Barkha Dutt was previously awarded Padmashree and other awards. The National Media Talent Award 2020 will be presented to Dutt by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

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