Egyptian Court Targets Independent Outlet Mada Masr

An Egyptian court has ordered the closure of independent news outlet Mada Masr and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, 3 million Egyptian pounds after convicting her of operating a website without a license. Attalah was detained for several hours after the verdict and released when the outlet paid the fine. The court also ordered Mada Masr’s equipment confiscated. The outlet says it will appeal. Attalah’s lawyers said the court refused to let them review the case file or submit additional evidence. Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who attended the hearing, said the judge appointed a new lawyer over the defense team’s objections and dictated motions for that lawyer. The verdict was announced amid protests from the defense. During her release procedures, Attalah learned she had also been sentenced in absentia in a separate 2024 case to a year in prison and a 20,000-pound fine. That ruling is being challenged, with another hearing scheduled for November 11. Founded in 2013, Mada Masr is among Egypt’s few remaining independent news organizations and has reported on corruption, human rights abuses and the military’s role. Authorities have blocked access to its website in Egypt since 2017. The outlet says it sought a license in 2018 but received no response, and that its latest application, submitted in 2023, remains unanswered. Six cases have been brought against the outlet and its journalists over six years; Tuesday’s trial was the first of its kind. The government says media organizations must follow the law, protect national security and counter misinformation, while maintaining that Egypt respects freedom of expression. International press-freedom and human-rights organizations condemned the ruling. A coalition of 119 organizations called the prosecution an unprecedented attack on press freedom. Amnesty International described the decision as a crushing blow, and the Committee to Protect Journalists warned that no independent journalist in Egypt was safe. US Senator Chris Van Hollen also criticized the charges. The case comes amid wider pressure on independent journalism. Six journalists from fact-checking platform Matsadaash were arrested in September and charged with terrorism-related offenses. EIPR says they reported being tortured; Egypt’s Interior Ministry denies the allegations. Prosecutors extended their pretrial detention by 15 days. EIPR says Egypt holds 26 journalists in connection with their work.

Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Mada Masr, was briefly detained after a Cairo court convicted her of managing an unlicensed website and ordered the outlet shut down. She was released after Mada Masr paid a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds (about $53,500). Her lawyer, Hassan al-Azhari, said the legal team also discovered that Attalah had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to a year in prison and fined 20,000 pounds. Her defence team appealed, with another hearing scheduled for 11 November. Mada Masr says it applied for an operating licence three years ago but received no response from the authorities. Attalah founded the outlet in 2013, after gaining prominence during the 2011 Arab spring, and has been arrested several times. Her case comes amid other pressure on independent media, including the arrest of all six members of factchecking platform Matsadaash, who were charged with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Attalah’s legal team said she was effectively ambushed during a court appearance, where a judge appointed a defence lawyer before security personnel detained her. Egyptian and international rights and press-freedom groups condemned the actions. Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said the escalation could signal an effort to eliminate independent media. Reporters Without Borders called the decision “outrageous” and “shameful”; the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdict, and Amnesty International described it as a “crushing blow” to press freedom. PEN International and other civil society organisations said the case reflected a broader pattern of harassment and warned that sending it to trial suggested an intention to close what remains of Egypt’s independent media space. The article notes that the CPJ counts 25 journalists currently imprisoned in Egypt.

An Egyptian court has ordered the closure of Mada Masr, an independent news website, and convicted its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, of operating without a licence. The New Cairo Misdemeanour Court imposed the maximum penalty under the law: a fine of three million Egyptian pounds, approximately $54,000, and confiscation of the outlet’s equipment and property. Attalah was detained after the verdict but released several hours later after Mada Masr paid the fine. The outlet said its lawyers plan to appeal. The ruling was delivered at the first hearing of the trial. Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and a former Mada Masr editor, said the judge rejected the defence’s procedural requests and appointed a lawyer for Attalah whom her eight-member defence team did not know. He described the conviction being read out amid protests from the defence. Mada Masr also reported that Attalah learned of a separate, one-year prison sentence issued in absentia in 2024, on charges of spreading false news and operating an unlicensed website. Her lawyers have challenged that sentence, with a retrial hearing scheduled for November 11. The licensing case was brought under Article 105 of Egypt’s 2018 media law, which permits fines of one million to three million Egyptian pounds and allows courts to shut unlicensed websites. It followed questioning of Attalah by the Supreme State Security Prosecution for more than six hours about a recent report. She was released on bail the next day and sent to trial on the licensing charge. Founded in 2013, Mada Masr has been blocked in Egypt since 2017. The outlet says it has applied for a licence three times, most recently in 2023, and that its latest application remains pending. The case is the sixth against the outlet or its journalists in six years. Before the verdict, rights groups and media organisations called for the outlet to be licensed. Amnesty International called the decision “a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt.”