Shushan Doydoyan, President of the Center for Freedom of Information, at the online meeting entitled “Borderless Repression: Transnational threats to Journalists in the European Landscape”, presented the cases of spying on Armenian journalists by the Azerbaijani government, reflecting on the influence of Pegasus on the professional and personal life of journalists and the possible solutions to prevent espionage.
At the online meeting, the President of FOICA stated that the civil society should continue to monitor cases of illegal use of spyware and speak out about them.
Additionally, it is necessary to initiate multiple and consistent appeals precedents by filing lawsuits in national and international courts against spying governments (for example Azerbaijan) and the private companies that produce these programs (for example, the Jewish NSO Group).
According to Sh. Doydoyan, the purpose of these lawsuits should be to recognize violations of journalists’ rights to free expression and privacy and demand adequate compensation. Media Defense filed a similar claim with the European Court of Human Rights to appeal the cases of spying on Armenian journalists in the period following the Artsakh war.
Among other solutions, Sh. Doydoyan also emphasized the importance of national and international Personal Data Protection bodies with their powers (for example, the European Data Protection Board, the European Data Protection Supervisor, etc.) to be involved in appeal processes, as espionage greatly affects the right of citizens to protect their personal data.
“Governments must be forced to adopt regulations that restrict trade with spyware companies and/or stop the production of spyware before its human rights impact is fully assessed. An investigation should be carried out against those governments (for example Azerbaijan, Belarus, etc.) that are suspected of spying on journalists,” emphasized the head of the FOICA.
Sh. Doydoyan’s full speech: Speech
The webinar was organized by the British organization Media Defense in cooperation with Free Press Unlimited.
