Berlin, February 10, 2025 — Italian authorities should thoroughly investigate the targeting of the editor-in-chief of the news site Fanpage.it Francesco Cancellato’s cell phone with spyware via the WhatsApp messaging app and punish the perpetrators, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
“The attack on investigative journalist Francesco Cancellato with Paragon spyware is a serious breach of journalistic rights and freedoms,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Italian authorities must prove that they will not tolerate illegal surveillance of the media and that journalists can ensure the confidentiality of their sources without fear of being spied on.”
Cancellato said WhatsApp sent him a message on January 31 saying that the company had “interrupted the activities of a spyware company” which it believed attacked his phone and may have accessed his “data including messages saved on the device.”
The journalist, known for his investigations into corruption, organized crime, and Italy’s far-right, said he felt “violated” but didn’t want to speculate who was behind the attack.
Cancellato was the first journalist to come forward after WhatsApp revealed that it had detected a hacking attempt in December targeting around 90 users worldwide, including civil society and media figures in dozens of countries. The company announced that it had issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Israeli software firm Paragon Solutions, which sells the spyware called Graphite to governments for crime prevention.
Italy’s government said in a February 5 statement that seven unnamed WhatsApp users in the country had been targeted. The government denied any involvement and charged Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency to investigate the matter. The following day, news reports said Paragon had terminated its dealings with Italy after the government failed to address the spying claims.
CPJ messaged Paragon Solutions, which does not have a public website, via the social media platform LinkedIn and emailed Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency requesting comment but did not receive any replies.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.