Egyptian authorities have released Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Mada Masr, after briefly detaining her, while a court has ordered her website shut down. The ruling comes as pressure on independent media in the country continues to grow.
Attalah was taken into custody after a Cairo court convicted her of managing an unlicensed website. The verdict has prompted fresh international concern about press freedom in Egypt. According to Mada Masr, she was freed once the outlet paid a fine of 3m Egyptian pounds, roughly $53,500 or £40,100.
Her lawyer, Hassan al-Azhari, told AFP that the legal team learned something new while settling the fine. "In the process, we discovered that she had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to a year in prison, as well as a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds," he said. The defence has appealed that earlier sentence, and a new hearing is set for 11 November.
Attalah's lawyers suggested she was effectively ambushed in court. They said a judge appointed a defence lawyer for her, after which security personnel detained her in the courtroom.
Attalah founded Mada Masr in 2013, having risen to international prominence in 2011 during the Arab spring. A longtime press freedom advocate, she has been arrested several times. Mada Masr says it applied for an operating licence three years ago and never received a reply from the authorities.
The case follows the arrest of the entire six-person team at the independent factchecking platform Matsadaash, who were charged with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who attended the hearing, said the developments suggest "Egypt's security agencies are moving from years of harassing independent media to wiping them out completely." He added that the escalation risks eviscerating the narrow margin of press freedom that had allowed a handful of outlets and rights groups to keep operating.
According to EIPR, the moves against independent media follow more frequent statements since August from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi alleging a conspiracy to destabilise the country. He has said he intends to stay in power until 2030 to protect Egypt from "traitors, criminals, and saboteurs".
International organisations reacted sharply. Reporters Without Borders called the court's decision "outrageous" and "shameful", and the Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the verdict. Amnesty International described it as "a crushing blow to press freedom". According to the CPJ, Egypt is among the world's top jailers of journalists, with 25 currently behind bars.
Pen International, together with several dozen civil society organisations, issued a joint statement. It noted that this is the sixth case against Mada Masr in six years, but the first of its kind to be referred to trial. Such a step, the group said, "must be read as a clear intent to entirely shutter the independent media space, and to permanently close what remains."
