Journos here harp back to paper days as "the Pegasus Project" sends ripples

In March, SJB's MP Harin Fernando claimed in Parliament that Sri Lanka's intelligence agencies were using the Pegasus spyware to monitor opposition Parliamentarians and even Ministers within the government.

This week’s global headline story on "The Pegasus Project" revealed how the Israel-based NSO group's spyware is being used around the world, targetting activists, politicians, and journalists. In neighbouring India, the Narendra Modi- led government is also accused of targetting journalists and activists critical of the government.

The revelation also sounded alarms closer home and journalists are now taking extra measures on digital security even though Sri Lanka is not mentioned in the list of countries that have obtained this facility.

In March, SJB MP Harin Fernando claimed in Parliament that Sri Lanka's intelligence agencies were using the Pegasus spyware to monitor opposition Parliamentarians and even Ministers within the government. He got away with that claim under the Parliament Privileges Act.

Many in the local journalists fraternity were also concerned about these recent developments and agreed that the early model of Nokia made phones without internet facility is less harmful and decent enough to be used for their work. Unfortunately, those kinds of phones are not available in the market these days, thanks to the Govt.'s import controls.

A veteran journalist even questioned the usage of the ordinary phone too, simply declaring that using the 'paper trail' was the only and sound step -as they used to do decades ago to prevent any monitoring by authorities.