An Egyptian court has ordered the closure of Mada Masr, one of the country's last prominent independent news outlets, and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, three million Egyptian pounds ($53,400) for running a website without a licence.
The New Cairo Misdemeanour Court also ruled that the outlet's equipment and devices be confiscated. Attalah was taken into custody after the ruling on Tuesday, then released several hours later once Mada Masr had paid the fine in full.
During the release procedures, Attalah learned that she had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to one year in prison on charges of publishing false news and running an unlicensed website. Mada Masr said her lawyers have challenged that sentence, and a retrial hearing is set for November 11.
In an editorial published hours after the verdict, the outlet said it had gone into court "with a measure of faith in the law and the justice system". It added: "But what we found in court left none of that faith intact." According to Mada Masr, the court refused its lawyers' requests to examine the case file, submit more evidence and call witnesses. The judge then appointed "an unknown party" to serve as Attalah's defence lawyer, even though eight of her own lawyers were present and she objected. The outlet said the judge wrote that lawyer's requests himself before delivering a verdict with the maximum penalty.
Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, attended the hearing. Mada Masr reported that he said the court went ahead with the appointment despite Attalah's objection. Mada Masr's lawyer, Hassan al-Azhari, told the Egyptian outlet Zawia3 that the court rejected the defence's requests and then named a lawyer, a step Attalah and her team opposed.
The ruling rests on Article 105 of Egypt's 2018 media law, which sets fines of one to three million Egyptian pounds ($17,800 to $53,400), along with closure and confiscation, for operating an unlicensed website. Mada Masr says it applied to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation for a licence in 2018 and again in 2020 without receiving a reply. It says it learned of a rejection only when prosecutors raised it in a 2022 case. In 2023, an administrative court upheld the council's refusal, citing a lack of proof that the outlet's trademark was registered, although Mada Masr's lawyer said he had submitted a registration certificate. A new application has been pending since June 2023.
There was no immediate official comment on the verdict. Khaled el-Balshy, head of the Journalists' Syndicate, said the union would take legal action to appeal. Mada Masr, founded in 2013, has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017. It says it has faced six cases in six years, and rights groups say this is the first to reach trial.
"We tried to defend the law," the outlet wrote, "just as we tried to defend ourselves." Yasmine Ahmed, senior director for regional impact at Amnesty International, called the decision "a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt" and "a dark day for independent journalism in the country". She described it as the culmination of years of harassment and unjust proceedings aimed at silencing one of the country's last independent media voices.
The verdict came on the same day that Egypt's Supreme State Security Prosecution, which investigates national security cases, renewed the detention of six journalists from the fact-checking platform Matsadaash for another 15 days.
