By Ilona Kocsi, Balkan Insight
Pegasus and the espionage of journalists, civilians and politicians may be the most serious abuse of power in Hungary since the democratic transition three decades ago.
“Shocking”, “incredible”, “scandalous” were some of the first reactions in Hungary to the reports of an international investigative consortium of journalists from 17 countries that were published on July 18.
The Hungarian National Association of Journalists (MÚOSZ) demanded an immediate investigation and an explanation from the government: how is it possible that in a country where the Basic Law guarantees freedom of speech and press, journalists doing their job can be eavesdropped on by Israeli spy programs ?
According to an article published in Telex by the Hungarian member of the international journalism project, Direkt36, there may be over 300 targets in Pegasus Hungary – a program developed by the Israeli cyber security company NSO Group – whose smartphones were tapped.
It is not yet known who used this cyber weapon against Hungarian civilians, and it has not been established who bought the software. However, the Israeli company claims that its software can only be sold to governments with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and must be used for specific purposes against terrorism and law enforcement.
Therefore, it is assumed that the buyer must have been a government body. The International Consortium of Investigations found that the spy program was used against journalists, civil rights activists, opposition politicians, lawyers and businessmen in at least 10 countries, which in addition to Hungary include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, India and Kazakhstan. Morocco, Mexico, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia.
Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit journalism organization, and Amnesty International initially had access to data leaks from more than 50,000 phone numbers since 2016, reports abcnews.al
Once such a thing was discovered, every ordinary citizen would have thought that immediate decisions would be made. In fact, they expected the Prime Minister to deny the incident and express his condolences to the victims of espionage, and vowed to use every possible legal means to investigate the case.
But none of this happened. The prime minister has remained silent, while ministers and government officials have not provided enough information.
“Hungarian national security services have not carried out any illegal surveillance since May 29, 2010,” said Interior Minister Sandor Pinter. “I have no information on this alleged collection of data,” said Foreign Minister and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto, who then asked the civilian intelligence service to examine whether the reports were the product of a “coordinated communication action”. By some anonymous secret services.
“Let us not be ridiculous, every country needs such tools,” said Justice Minister Judit Varga.
The president of the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Attila Peterfalvi, is on leave until August 3 and will only decide whether or not to open an investigation once he returns to office.
The prosecution service is investigating whether an investigation should be launched into the case (an investigation has already begun in France, although reports suggest Moroccan intelligence was behind the spying on members of the French government.
Fidesz’s parliamentary group said: “The news published in the left media is baseless and only aims to create political unrest, so there is no need to convene a session of the National Security Committee.”
“The government does not deal with press information,” said Interior Minister Katalin Novak. We consider unacceptable this approach of the public and the basic institutions of democracy.
It is incredible how insensitive the Hungarian government is and how incapable of realizing that the scandal that is taking place now is extremely shocking. Perhaps this is why they are trivializing it, because they know full well that a large part of the Hungarian media already operates under the control of the ruling party, fueled by government advertising.
A test of democracy
But the biggest concern is journalists. Their interests must be protected because this story is a violation of their private and professional sphere. There is no democracy without a free press.
If even the citizens are being spied on during their work, then anyone, at any time, can be targeted if those in power approve of such a thing. Therefore, an investigation into the scandal is a test of democracy in Hungary.
It has become clear that the legal remedies available are not even effective enough to protect people. The investigation can find out if it is the government that is behind this espionage scandal. Or maybe it was not the government itself, but an incredibly diligent body attached to the government.
Such an outcome would be a disgrace to a democratic country. So let’s consider this the worst case scenario. A bad dream. Let us believe that this story will have a happy ending and all those involved will be punished.
Because if the worst case scenario is proven, then the history of espionage can easily turn into a nightmare, which can give a fatal blow to democracy./Translated by Sonila Backa-abcnews.al
