Germany: "No one has been monitored while doing journalist work" - govt spox on Pegasus scandal

У вашего броузера проблема в совместимости с HTML5

A spokesperson for the German government denied Berlin is monitoring anyone “while doing journalist work” during a press conference in the German capital, on Monday, after thousands of journalists and activists in multiple countries were found to have been spied on with the Pegasus software.

“We abide strictly by rights and the law, and perhaps most importantly no one has been monitored while doing journalist work. Absolutely not,” said Interior Ministry spokesperson Sascha Lawrenz, who said he was unable to comment further on the government’s use of spyware.

Questions about government spying arose after Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism non-profit, had access to thousands of phone numbers, many belonging to journalists, activists and politicians, were among those monitored by spyware named Pegasus.

The software can be surreptitiously installed on the phones of unsuspecting targets using various back doors and security flaws, allowing their camera and microphone to be turned on at will, and their messages to be copied.

The Israeli tech firm NSO Group, which created Pegasus, said it provided “authorised governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime.”

SOT, Sascha Lawrenz, Interior Ministry spokesperson (German): “Concerning operational details of the work of our security authorities, for example about which software is being used, I generally cannot comment. But what I have said about this remains the case, there are rights and laws, and for serious encroachments on fundamental rights - and telephone monitoring for example is a serious attack on basic rights - there are requirements concerning this, for instance the requirement of judicial authority.”

SOT, Martina Fietz, Government spokesperson (German): “I can only speak anyhow for the federal government and for events here in Germany. And as has been said, I can only say that the German security authorities abide by rights and by the law.”

SOT, Sascha Lawrenz, Interior Ministry spokesperson (German): “It remains the case that we abide strictly by rights and the law, and perhaps most importantly no one is being monitored while doing journalist work. Absolutely not.”

SOT, Martina Fietz, Government spokesperson (German): “Let me once again emphasise, that a free press and free broadcasting are of particular importance for the functioning of a democratic state and a democratic society. According to the jurisdiction of the federal constitutional law, the entire area of journalism and its activities, from the procurement of information to the dissemination of news, are subject to constitutional protection and the federal government upholds this.”
#Germany #Berlin #Pegasusscandal
Video ID: 20210719-018

Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20210719-018
Contact: [email protected]

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly