The key facts
- Lina Attallah, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Mada Masr, referred to trial for operating the website without a licence
- Trial in New Cairo begins on 27 October; possible fine of 1–3 million pounds (about €16–48 thousand)
- CPJ and RSF condemned the case; Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 in the RSF index
Charges and timeline
Egypt's Supreme State Security Prosecution has referred the case of Lina Attallah, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the independent Egyptian outlet Mada Masr, to court, the newsroom said on Thursday. Prosecutors interrogated her for six hours on Wednesday in New Cairo. She is charged with operating the website without a licence and with publishing false news 'with the aim of disturbing public peace'; during the interrogation, the second charge was dropped from the indictment. The case has been sent to the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court, with the hearing scheduled for 27 October.
Defence position and the licence saga
Mada Masr lawyer Hassan al-Azhari called the referral of the case hasty and said that starting the trial as early as next week signals 'unjustified haste'. According to him, in the event of a guilty verdict, Attallah faces a fine of 1 to 3 million Egyptian pounds (about €16–48 thousand; $18–54 thousand). Since 2018 — the year the press regulation law was adopted — Mada Masr has been seeking a licence to operate the website. According to the outlet, the authorities failed to respond to requests for years; in 2022 the website learned that its application had been rejected, filed a lawsuit, and in 2023 it emerged that the refusal was linked to missing documents.
Context and reaction
The case against Attallah followed last month's arrest of six journalists from the independent fact-checking and investigations outlet Matsadaash. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed alarm: the organisation's Middle East and North Africa director, Sara Kouda, said Egypt is 'turning the media law into a weapon against independent journalism' and escalating one of the worst crackdowns in years, which began with the arrest of the six Matsadaash journalists. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had earlier also expressed concern about Attallah's interrogation. In RSF's press freedom index, Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries; the country's largest media outlets, according to RSF, are owned by the state or by businessmen close to the authorities. Mada Masr publishes in Arabic and English and often covers the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi critically; he came to power through the 2013 military coup against Mohamed Morsi and has since blocked websites, including Al Jazeera and The New Arab, accusing them of supporting the 'Muslim Brotherhood'.
