The phone numbers of nearly 40 Indian journalists have appeared in a leaked database, which reflects potential targets of cyber surveillanc...
The phone numbers of nearly 40 Indian journalists have appeared in a leaked database, which reflects potential targets of cyber surveillance through the use of the Pegasus hacking software that an Israeli company claims to sell only to governments.
While most journalists on the list are reporters and editors who work in the English-language national media in Delhi, some write for small publications faraway from the capital.
One of them is Rupesh Kumar Singh who reports from Jharkhand. Three phone numbers related to him appeared in the leaked database a few months after he reported on the killing of an innocent Adivasi man by the Jharkhand police in 2017, according to The Wire.
The news did not come as a surprise to the 35-year-old. He said his reports on police violence against Adivasis had made him a target, not merely of surveillance. In 2019, he had been arrested under the stringent anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, in what he alleged was a fabricated case.
“Honestly, I am proud of my reporting,” he told Scroll.in.
Signs of surveillance
Singh grew up in Bhagalpur district in Bihar. Before he turned to freelance journalism in 2012, Singh was a part of the state council for the All India Students’ Association, the student arm of the Communist Party of India Liberation...
