Photographer-journalist Dániel Németh has spent years investigating and documenting the luxury lifestyle of Hungary’s ruling elite, following them with his camera as they travelled around Europe. This time, however, someone was watching him too.

Páva’s smartphone was hacked with the cyberweapon developed by Israeli company NSO on March 16, the very day when it became public information that opposition party Democratic Coalition signed a contract with his company for social media consulting.

Previous reporting showed that Pegasus was used against Hungarian targets in 2018 and 2019. Now there is evidence that Zoltán Páva, a former politician who is a news publisher now, was under surveillance in March and May this year.

Two Hungarian journalists Szabolcs Panyi and András Szabó share their personal reports of how it felt to find out they were surveilled through their mobile phones for weeks and months.

During her surveillance, Brigitta Csikász, one of Hungary’s most experienced crime reporters, wrote about the misuse of EU funds among other topics. Csikász’s investigations revealed that, despite the alarms of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Hungarian authorities lacked either the will or the ability to prosecute the suspicious spending of EU money.

The mayor of Gödöllő was targeted at a time when he was in a serious conflict with the government. People close to him have also appeared in the leaked database of targets selected for Pegasus.

Attila Aszódi became a target shortly before his dismissal in 2019 at a time when he had several conflicts with the Hungarian cabinet member supervising Paks 2. The State Secretary disagreed with the measures that would have benefitted the Russian party building the new nuclear power plant and would have changed the original timetable of the project.

Professional secrecy does not seem to protect lawyers from becoming targets of surveillance. Bánáti was targeted during a famous murder case, while another lawyer became the target at the time when he wanted to run against the Fidesz mayor of a small town during the last municipal elections.

An international investigation has found that Pegasus has been abused by countries around the world. Hungarian targets include media company owner Zoltán Varga and people connected to him, Lajos Simicska’s son and lawyer, as well as several investigative journalists.