EL MUNDO: The farce of “Catalan-gate” and the “complicity” of “Citizen Lab

The Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” published an article on the 2nd of April 2023 under the title “The farce of Catalan-gate and the complicity of Citizen Lab”, authored by Julio Valdeon, focusing on the report recently published by university professor José Javier Olivas, questioning the reliability and credibility of the “Catalan-gate” report by the Canadian laboratory “Citizen Lab” regarding the alleged “involvement” of the Spanish government in the spying on Catalan separatists.

In fact, the political science professor refuted the allegations related to the “Catalan-gate”, stressing that the “pro-independence movement is seeking to overturn the convictions of the trial based on a report lacking credibility and instrumentalizing the European Parliament’s Commission of Inquiry into the use of Pegasus (PEGA).

The London School of Economics (LES) professor has thoroughly investigated the ‘Catalan Gate’ report, published by the Toronto-based Citizen Lab, and has concluded that it is a ‘research work riddled with errors and methodological shortcomings, which cast doubt on its reliability’.

The Canadian laboratory ‘shows a total lack of transparency regarding the methodology adopted, which is abnormal in the academic world, where the researcher must also specify possible economic or political conflicts of interest’, he added.

José Javier Olivas recalled that “many academics have asked Citizen Lab to provide information on its research, but the Canadian laboratory has refused. For example, Citizen Lab’s experts do not say how many devices were analysed, because it is not the same thing if there are 50 and all of them are positive, or if there are 2000 and only 50 are positive. They also don’t specify who tested them, when, or how. And every time we point out the shortcomings of the report, Citizen Lab adopts an arrogant attitude, discrediting those who ask them for explanations. Curious, isn’t it? “Especially because they ask governments and companies for explanations and demand that they have to be transparent, knowing that they do not meet the standards of academic transparency.”

He said the report was promoted by Ronan Farrow in the “New Yorker” and then reported by the “Washington Post”. “It was well done. They launched a well-orchestrated campaign, internationally. He added that, in addition to blaming Spain, the campaign also silenced critical voices. “Citizen Lab has contacts with many journalists specialised in the field of technology.

However, neither the government nor most of the Spanish political parties seem to recognise the importance of this manoeuvre, which undermines the credibility of the rule of law. “They didn’t not use the tools available to oppose the disinformation campaign. Nor did the government send emissaries to question the quality of the report. The narrative is the one crafted by the independents and Citizen Lab”.

“All the information that shows that this is a campaign of intoxication was gathered by citizens like me, who investigated the case in their free time, without any institutional support. It is normal that the separatism and Citizen Lab felt that they enjoyed a certain impunity”, Olivas added.

To illustrate the extent of the disinformation campaign, the professor said: “someone took the correspondent of a Japanese newspaper in Brussels to Barcelona to interview José Bové (former French MEP), before publishing a very critical article against Spain in Japan.

To conclude his article, the journalist Julio Valdeon recalled the conclusions of José Javier Olivas, according to which the Catalan separatist movement had put forward the “Citizen Lab” report to exert pressure on the Sanchez cabinet, while instrumentalising the European Parliament’s Commission, in charge of investigating the use of Pegasus (PEGA), in order to obtain the annulment of the trials of 12 Catalan pro-independence personalities who had been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 09 to 13 years, for the “crime of sedition”.