MFRR Press Freedom Fact Sheet 2025 - Spyware and surveillance

Spywares are extremely powerful and intrusive digital weapons that are increasingly jeopardising the work of journalists and basic human rights, within and outside Europe. Narratives that portray them as being used only against criminals, or that see their abuse committed only by authoritarian states, are no longer acceptable, and constitute a blatant falsehood to the detriment of European and global societies.

This fact sheet on spyware abuse, produced by the MFRR consortium based on carefully verified data collected on the MMF platform, provides an overview of the threat that spywares pose to European journalism. The case studies that follow are an essential insight, and yet represents only a fraction of the breaches that systematically occur in Europe.

Enforcing and further strengthening protections for journalists, as well as ensuring transparency and accountability of abusers, are urgent actions that can no longer be postponed.