alt Hacker NewsItalian 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