There are important differences between the way these stories play out in democracies and dictatorships. Snowden’s leaks were widely discussed. Journalists won Pulitzer Prizes for investigating them. In Poland, the Pegasus spyware scandal was eventually exposed and investigated, first by the media and later by a parliamentary committee. If no parallel scandal has ever unfolded in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, that’s because there are no legislative committees or free media that could play the same role.
