Khadija Ismayilova, Pegasus Spyware Target | Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus | FRONTLINE

Investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova had previously been blackmailed and arrested in Azerbaijan. Then came a new threat. Watch an excerpt from episode one of the new documentary series "Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus."

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Ismayilova’s is just one of the stories that unfolds in “Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus,” which premieres Tues., Jan. 3, and Tues., Jan. 10, 2023. Two years in the making, the documentary series chronicles what happened after Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International gained access to a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers in 2020 that they suspected contained numbers selected for potential surveillance with the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. NSO Group, which has disputed some of the Pegasus Project’s reporting, said it “does not operate the systems it sells” or “have access to the data of its customers’ targets,” but that it investigates credible claims of misuse and has terminated contracts.

“Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus” follows journalists across the world in the Pegasus Project reporting consortium as they race to piece together who has been targeted with the spyware — and the implications.

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“Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus” is a FRONTLINE production with Forbidden Films. It is a film by Anne Poiret and Arthur Bouvart. The director is Anne Poiret. The producers are Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud. The senior producers are Eamonn Matthews and Dan Edge. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Park Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Laura DeBonis.