Journalists Warned To Lock All Doors, Front And Back

Michael Hedges May 15, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

Media workers have no doubts that their every endeavour, professional or otherwise, is under scrutiny. Faith that press freedom and other conventions offer a level of protection has dissipated as authoritarian leaders continue to diminish the media’s role in civil society, if not civil society generally. We have seen this movie before.

Global news agency AFP filed a formal complaint with the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) after discovering four of its reporters had come under surveillance by public relations and lobbying giant FleishmanHillard for its client Monsanto. French newspapers Le Monde and Le Parisian and public broadcasters France Televisions and Radio France have joined the complaint. The Le Monde complaint cites “collection of personal data by fraudulent, disloyal and unlawful means.” Le Monde and public television channel France 2 reported the files include “hundreds of personalities,” sorted by those most likely to be manipulated.

AFP called the practice “totally unacceptable,” in a statement (May 14) from Global News Director Phil Chetwynd. Monsanto continues to fight lawsuits over its Roundup weed-killer product, believed by experts to have negative health effects on human beings. A California jury, reported CNN (May 14), ordered Monsanto to pay US$2 billion in damages to a couple who had used the product and contracted cancer. AFP has an increasing presence in global fact-checking projects.

“It has nothing to do with press relations,” said German Journalists Association (DJV) president Frank Überall, quoted by meedia.de (May 14). “This is media manipulation.” German news media is actively following the Roundup/Monsanto story as it intersects with German company Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last year, and concerns about environmental issues, not to forget ongoing issues with right-wing disinformation.

The complaints in France and Germany came hours before another damper was thrust on journalist’s security. The Financial Times (May 14) reported Facebook’s WhatsApp encrypted messaging service had been compromised with 1.5 billion users worldwide affected. Users mobile devices had been surreptitiously infected by malware produced by Israeli tech security provider NSO Group allowing wide access to user details, messages and geo-location. WhatsApp has been a go-to secure messaging service for journalists and their contacts. There have been warnings.

Canadian technology investigator Citizen Lab reported last year surveillance of 24 individuals by a “Mexican-government linked operator” using the NSO Group spyware Pegasus. Seven were journalists, at least one murdered. Five Mexican and one Qatari victim have fined lawsuits against NSO Group. One lawsuit, noted Fast Company (March 20), claimed Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was tracked by the company’s software before his murder last October in Turkey, widely suspected by Saudi government operatives.

More than two years ago an article by Manisha Ganguly in The Guardian (January 13, 2017) warned of a “backdoor” with WhatsApp allowing third-party access. It was widely derided at the time, certainly among technology fans. It turns out to have been prescient.

Journalist advocates have been recommending a switch to more secure messaging providers for months and years. Signal, Telegram, Viber and others have been mentioned, including by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ - January 29), which other security tips. Widely-known Signal is an open-source end-to-end encryption tool for voice and messaging. Telegram is popular in the Russian Federation, as such developer Pavel Durov had to flee the country for not handing over the code. Viber was developed in Israel and is well-known in Eastern Europe, India and the Middle East. Another option for journalists seeking secure communication is the virtual private network (VPN).

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