Italian here.
The usage of spyware is allowed only for people that are suspected by a specific list of violations and must be approved by a judge.
The other option is about national security threat and must be approved by a specific parliament commission.
Allow me to be dubious about the Italian government spying on Italian journalists for security reasons like it happened in the past. I'm not commenting on that case specifically, but it's not like we're saints
As I said, the usage of the spyware is authorized by a judge (that is a separated entity from government and not really friend of the actual government, in general) or by the COPASIR (that is composed by a balanced mix of all parties and the president is from the oppositions).
Italy has some critical issues, but it's still a rule of law state.
I think that in the past, the situation was a lot more worrying than now. Think about Ustica, Bologna station bombing, etc.
Another Italian here. Definitely we’re not saints, and definitely there have been worrying behaviours in the past, and maybe it’s ongoing or will happen again, but the point is that it became known and there are mechanisms for legal redress.
