Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder & Pegasus Spyware

Hey Shoot the Messenger Listeners - we are hard at work on Season 2, “Who Killed the Haitian President?” It will launch in late February. Until then, we’re bringing you special bonus episodes. 

This episode we’re sharing the first episode of a new series from our friends at Brazen and PRX called ‘The Professor.’ 

“The Professor” is an investigative podcast about a stolen masterpiece, the Italian mafia, and one man's search for redemption.

In this bonus episode of Shoot the Messenger, we share a special interview host Rose Reid did with Russian journalist and founder of the media outlet Meduza, Galina Timchenko.

Citizen Lab and Access Now confirmed Galina Timchenko had been infected with Pegasus — which is the first documented case of the use of Pegasus against a Russian journalist.

Before Galina Timchenko was the editor in chief of Meduza, she ran one of Russia’s most popular media outlets, called Lenta.ru. She was fired as Lenta.ru’s chief editor in 2014, after Vladimir Putin returned to power, the same year of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Since 2014, Galina and her team have been reporting on Russia in exile. 

We’ll launch our second season in early 2024 - which investigates “Who Killed the President of Haiti?”  In the meantime, we will bring you monthly bonus episodes - featuring our favorite shows and updates on Pegasus.

We partnered with our friends at Reveal for a special episode on Pegasus, “The Spy Inside Your Smartphone,” featuring a deeper dive in the hacking of the El Faro newsroom in El Salvador and an interview with co-host Rose Reid. 

Reveal, hosted by Al Letson, is a weekly investigative news show. You can hear it weekly on your local NPR station, or subscribe here.

We are hard at work on Season 2, which will air in early 2024. In the meantime, every month, we will bring you a special bonus episode - it will be either an update on Pegasus, or a teaser for our upcoming season Haiti, or we will bring you a new show we think you will love.

Stay tuned for a special episode on Pegasus in October.

A chilling wave of murders sweeps through Little Haiti, a Miami neighborhood that is home to many Haitian exiles. The victims are radio broadcasters, using the airwaves to demand democracy at home. Little Haiti is up in arms, calling for justice for the fallen heroes, but the investigation stalls. To this day, the masterminds remain free. And rumors persist … about cocaine trafficking, CIA assets, and transnational coups. Ana Arana, who first investigated the crimes thirty years ago, teams up with Oz Woloshyn to find answers to a case that continues to haunt her.

We're taking a brief hiatus, but here's a sneak peak into what we're working on for Shoot The Messenger season two!

For our second season of Shoot the Messenger, we are doing a special collaboration with reporter David Adams to tell a story that continues to be a mystery, the assassination of the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse

Captain Humberto Coral was a key member in the Search Bloc that hunted down and killed notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. Only a few months after the killing of Escobar, Captain Coral was mysteriously killed in the streets of Medellín. His son, Beto, grows up asking himself who was responsible for his father’s death?

On March 29, Russian authorities arrested Evan and accused him of spying on Russia on behalf of the US government. Evan was imprisoned in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, where he remains today. In this special episode from Project Brazen, you’ll hear from those close to Evan — his friends, newsroom colleagues, even his former soccer coach — about his shocking arrest, efforts to bring him home, and how he became the journalist he is today. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-evan-gershkovich-how-a-us-reporter-was/id1585848867?i=1000613477446 

Evan is the first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since the Cold War. The charge, which The Journal vehemently denies, can carry a sentence of up to 20 years. To support the campaign for Evan’s release or send him a message of support, visit www.freegershkovich.com.

A special bonus episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Click Here.

Click Here is a podcast about the world of cyber and intelligence hosted by Dina Temple-Raston. 

Click Here did a special episode about Pegasus spyware in Mexico:

Classified documents and internal memos in a new report from digital activists in Mexico make clear the Mexican Army systematically deployed Pegasus spyware against local journalists and activists. R3D, a Mexican digital rights group, and University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, also discovered the existence of a formerly unknown military intelligence unit whose sole purpose appears to be secret surveillance and deployment of spyware. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/click-here/id1225077306

Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder and Pegasus Spyware concludes its first season with its tenth episode.

Up until now, this show has focused on the use of Pegasus in foreign countries. But while we were in the middle of releasing the episodes of this season, a pair of New York Times journalists published a bombshell report that showed that the US government is making monthly payments to the NSO Group despite the official blacklisting of the company.

Last month, Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman published an article in the New York Times describing the secret deal that occurred between the US government and the NSO Group.

Guests: New York Times Reporters Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti 

We'd like to extend a special thanks to the Committee to Protect Journalists for their special collaboration on the first season of Shoot the Messenger. For more information on the status of journalists and freedom of the press - visit at cpj.org.

Shoot the Messenger is hosted by Rose Reid and Nando Vila and is a production of Exile Content Studio.

Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder and Pegasus Spyware continues with its ninth episode, a conversation with Sandrine Rigaud and Laurent Richard of Forbidden Stories, the organization behind the Pegasus Project. 

Published in July 2021, the findings of the Pegasus Project sent shockwaves throughout the world. The leaked data showed that at least 180 journalists had been selected as targets of Pegasus spyware in countries like India, Mexico, Hungary, Morocco and France, among others. One of the possible targets? Current French president Emmanuel Macron. 

Sandrine and Laurent describe what it was like to watch these cases play out in real time. 

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill of Amnesty International worked alongside the Forbidden Stories team running forensics on potential targets’ cell phones, searching for evidence of infection. The work they did together changed everything.

Shoot the Messenger is hosted by Rose Reid and Nando Vila and is a production of Exile Content Studio. 

Guests: Sandrine Rigaud, Laurent Richard and Donncha Ó Cearbhaill