In the second podcast episode, we talk with Szabolcs Panyi, a Hungarian investigative journalist working for Direkt36, a non-profit investigative journalism center that provides in-depth accountability reporting.

Several years ago, Szabolcs Panyi was the subject of surveillance by the Hungarian government. His phone number was found in a leaked database containing 50,000 phone numbers of people targeted by Pegasus, a powerful spyware tool that can be installed remotely, and access virtually everything on the target’s phone.

Pegasus was designed by an Israeli company called NSO Group with the purpose to to fight crime and terrorism. However, the leaked database shows that it was used for the surveillance of human rights activists, political dissidents, lawyers and journalists across the world.

Listen to the episode to find out more about how Szabolcs Panyi, and the Direkt36 editorial team is coping with the challenges of working as journalists in Hungary.