Serbia: Technical Briefing: Journalists targeted with Pegasus spyware
Amnesty International has found evidence that two journalists at the Serbia-based Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (“BIRN”), an award-winning network of investigative journalists, were targeted with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in February 2025.
These new findings of ongoing Pegasus targeting further strengthen evidence that Serbian authorities are abusing highly invasive spyware products and other digital surveillance technologies to target journalists, activists, and other members of civil society in the country. This evidence builds on Amnesty International’s December 2024, “A Digital Prison” report, which documented the systematic and unlawful targeting of civil society in Serbia with mobile forensic technology developed by Cellebrite and three forms of spyware, including Pegasus and a domestically-developed Android spyware system. BIRN was Amnesty International’s investigative partner in the “A Digital Prison” investigation.