The co-chairman of the Morocco-European Union joint parliamentary committee, Lahcen Haddad, pinpointed the “revealing and motivated” silence of the “Forbidden Stories” and “Amnesty” organizations and the “Le Monde” and “El País” newspapers, following the news revelations in the Pegasus affair, having shown that Morocco was unjustly targeted and that “no less than 22 European countries use Pegasus to spy on their own citizens”.
In a column published by the Spanish magazine “Atalayar”, Mr. Haddad returns to the information reported by the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz”, in its edition of August 9, according to which the members of the Commission of inquiry of the European Parliament on Pegasus learned from NSO, the company that makes the now famous spyware, that “it has active contracts with 12 of the 27 members of the European Union” and that “the company is currently working with 22 security and enforcement organizations of the law in the EU”. This revelation surprised the Commission, whose intention might probably have been to verify whether non-European countries used Pegasus to spy on European politicians and journalists, underlines the former minister, under the title “the Pegasus affair : Will “Le Monde” and “Forbidden Stories” apologize to Morocco?»
What is even more disconcerting, he notes, is the silence of the media such as “Le Monde”, “El País” and many others, which had accused Morocco (as well as other countries not Europeans) in July 2021 of using the spyware to hack into the phones of several European officials and journalists. “Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, the organizations behind the infamous revelations, are looking the other way,” he notes, adding that “not only is this silence telling, but the political motives behind these infamous revelations are also striking. “.
“The consortium of 17 media outlets and organisations, which made these revelations last year, were absolutely certain that Morocco was one of NSO’s clients and a recipient of the Pegasus spyware it uses to spy on foreigners and foreigners. nationals. A year later, not only have they failed to provide evidence for their accusations once morest Morocco, but the European Parliament has discovered that espionage is taking place at home in Europe, and that a large number of countries and organizations in the EU are NSO’s customers,” he points out.
“The explosive news, reported by ‘Haaretz’, did not attract the attention of ‘Le Monde’ or ‘El País’. Amnesty didn’t even mention it, and Forbidden Stories didn’t update its news feed on its website. The ‘Haaretz’ revelation demolished the story that ‘oppressive regimes use Pegasus to spy on politicians and journalists in European democracies’. The story has been denied, the story is not as sensational as it was a year ago,” he wrote.
“For fear of losing prestige and credibility, these media and organizations have retreated into a summer silence waiting for the storm to calm down. Not only that, but if they cover the story, it might be an additional source of information that they have no evidence once morest Morocco’s use of spyware. The legal ramifications are well known, not least because the Moroccan government is determined to take the case to European national courts to obtain justice for the damage caused by these same media and organizations,” he notes. The other reason why “Le Monde”, “El País” and others do not cover the story, according to Mr. Haddad, is that it “deconstructs their anti-Moroccan editorial line. Its purpose is less professionally journalistic than politically motivated.
A member of the House of Councillors, Mr. Haddad says he hopes that MEPs, who are right to create a commission to investigate this affair, will shed more light on this issue, so that “Le Monde”, “El Pais”, Amnesty, Forbidden Stories and others see the painful truth for what it is: Pegasus customers are mostly European, the victims are also European, their numbers are huge and the use is widespread. “MEPs are likely to find ways and pass laws to protect citizens, politicians and activists. But they will teach these media and these organizations the lesson of their lives: to take off their paternalistic and neocolonial toga, by which they give themselves the right to target and attack other countries, and to clean up their own garden before to tell others that theirs is sordid,” he concludes.
