After experts discovered that the phone of the co-founder of an exiled Russian media outlet critical of President Vladimir Putin's regime and the war in Ukraine had been infected withPegasus spyware, a media watchdog called on Thursday for a ban on the production and use of spyware technologies.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Russia to “repeal its draconian ‘foreign agents’ law,” stressing that labeling a media outlet in Russia as a “foreign agent” is a “serious violation of media pluralism.”

International journalist associations have joined Monday’s appeal of the Russian Union of Journalists, RUJ, for Russian authorities to investigate the the death of the editor-in-chief of an independent Russian news site who set herself on fire in front of a government building.

Russian journalist Ivan Golunov, who was recently freed from prison after a public outcry over false drug allegations, published a new investigation on Monday that delves into the corruption and organized-crime laden expansion of a 26 billion ruble (US$412.5 million) funeral business empire, revealing links between businessmen and high-ranking Russian officials.