Pegasus: one of the most famous reporters in Hungary both hunter and target
Audio 01:15
Szabolcs Panyi's phone has been infected with Pegasus spyware (illustrative image).
AFP / Archives
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
He is one of the best-known reporters in Hungary, several times crowned the country's best investigative journalist (2015, 2016, 2020).
Szabolcs Panyi works for the online newspaper Direkt 36, an independent media specializing in corruption cases.
He is part of the consortium of journalists who exposed the Pegasus affair, this vast spy scandal.
His case is a bit special: he is both the hunter… and the target!
Because his phone has been infected with spyware.
He was investigating sensitive cases: the establishment of a mysterious Russian bank in Budapest, relations between the Orban government and Israel, the pro-Chinese policy of Viktor Orban.
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With our correspondent in Budapest,
Florence La Bruyère
For several months in 2019, Szabolcs Panyi's phone was siphoned off by spyware.
But the journalist has never been intimidated or arrested.
He doesn't feel in danger.
“
I'm lucky,
” he says, “
because I live in Europe, in a member country of the European Union.
Monitoring civil society is serious, but we are not in Mexico, Morocco or India, where journalists are killed, thrown in prison or tortured.
"
It will be difficult to shed light on this story, as the Hungarian journalist believes he has been legally monitored: “
The law is so vague that anyone can be wiretapped.
The government has carte blanche to do what it wants.
"
►
See also: Pegasus, an Israeli software used to spy on journalists and activists around the world
In another European country, such a case would risk bringing down the government.
But not in Hungary, says Szabolcs Panyi.
“
The public prosecutor is a loyal friend and friend of Orban,” he
explains.
If he doesn't open an investigation, nothing will happen.
I am quite pessimistic, I think this case will have no consequences.
"
The many media close to power barely mention the case or present it in a spurious way.
► To read also:
President Macron in the list of potential targets of Pegasus spyware
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Pegasus
Hungary
Media
Viktor Orban