Pegasus Surveillance in Morocco: A Human Rights Test

The latest claims of Pegasus surveillance in Morocco raise a basic humanist question. Who guards the people who hold power to account? This is a humanism column, grounded in reported facts.

Amnesty International says Morocco’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGST, used NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware between 2017 and 2021. Its October 2026 report, built with 14 media organisations and Forbidden Stories, targets activists, journalists and critics. Al Jazeera carries the journalists’ accounts.

Researchers matched 103 Moroccan phone numbers to potential targets in late 2017. They included 34 human rights defenders, 22 journalists, five lawyers and four academics.

What Pegasus surveillance in Morocco means for rights

Journalist Omar Radi, now in Germany, says Pegasus was detected on his phone from 2018 to 2020. He was investigating land dispossession. A whistleblower using the name “Safir” describes physical tracking, secret filming and neighbours recruited as informants.

Morocco rejected similar allegations in 2020 and 2022 and asked for hard evidence. Officials received this report four weeks before publication and did not respond. Moroccan media argue that a number on a target list does not prove infection. That caution is fair, and the technical evidence deserves independent scrutiny.

Journalist Taoufik Bouachrine describes three methods of silencing: criminal charges, online smear campaigns and economic pressure. He was jailed on rape charges he denies, and released after six years under a royal pardon.

Humanism starts from human dignity. Dignity needs private thought, private speech and private conversation. A person who fears a hidden listener edits themselves. A society of edited citizens cannot debate honestly.

This is not a Moroccan problem alone. Spyware has been sold to many governments. Each case tests whether democracies will regulate a trade that can reach any phone.

The humane response is simple. Demand independent forensic checks. Demand transparent legal limits on surveillance. Protect journalists who report on power. Our earlier column on press freedom in Bangladesh makes the same case closer to home.

The stakes are practical as well as moral. Reporters who cannot protect their sources stop reporting on the powerful. Citizens then learn less about land, money and policing.

Fact basis: Al Jazeera (6 October 2026) on Amnesty International’s report. Allegations are unproven; Morocco has rejected earlier claims.