Egypt court orders closure of independent news outlet
An Egyptian court ordered the closure of one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets Tuesday after convicting its editor-in-chief of operating a website without a license, a major blow to the country’s shrinking press freedom, reports BritPanorama.
The publication, Mada Masr, stated that its editor-in-chief and founder, Lina Attalah, was released after paying a fine equivalent to about $53,400. She had been detained for seven hours following the verdict, with her whereabouts unknown during that period, according to the outlet.
Mada Masr is one of the few remaining news outlets in Egypt known for investigating corruption, the expanding role of the country’s powerful military, and human rights violations in a nation where newspapers and television stations are heavily regulated by authorities. Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Human Rights Watch condemned the prosecution of Attalah as an escalation of an “outrageous attack on independent media.”
Attalah’s lead lawyer, Hassan el-Azhary, indicated that Mada Masr intends to appeal the closure order.
“Today’s decision represents a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt and marks a dark day for independent journalism in the country,” said Amnesty International in a statement. They emphasized that by imposing a large fine, ordering the closure of Mada Masr and seizing its property, and detaining Attalah until payment was made, the Egyptian authorities were sending a “clear and ruthless message: critical, independent reporting will not be tolerated.”
While completing her release paperwork, Attalah’s defense team discovered that the 44-year-old journalist had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to one year in prison on charges of spreading false news and operating an unlicensed website — a conviction she plans to appeal, according to a post on Mada Masr’s Facebook page. An appeal hearing is scheduled for November 11.
During Tuesday’s session at a Cairo misdemeanor court — the first in a trial announced the previous week — the judge dismissed all of the defense’s procedural requests and instructed its lawyers to immediately present closing arguments, reported Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a rights group that attended the session.
When Attalah’s eight lawyers refused to comply, the judge appointed a court lawyer who none of them recognized, amidst strong objections from the defense team and Attalah herself, Bahgat noted. The judge did not allow the defense’s rejection of the appointed lawyer to be entered into the record.
State security prosecutors summoned Attalah for questioning last week on charges of publishing false news and operating without a license before referring her to trial on the latter allegation.
Mada Masr reported that it first applied for a license in 2018 but never received a response. Authorities have blocked its website within Egypt since 2017, and the outlet claims this is the sixth case brought against it or its journalists in six years.
Amnesty International and 118 other civil society groups and independent media outlets worldwide have urged Egyptian authorities to cease targeting Mada Masr and to grant it a license.
Khaled Elbalshy, head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, the country’s press union, expressed in a Facebook post that the organization supports Attalah’s case, labeling it “a wake-up call” that contrasts sharply with calls to relax press restrictions and pursue media reform.
This case is part of a broader crackdown on independent media in Egypt. On the same day, Egyptian prosecutors extended the pre-trial detention of all six journalists from the Matsadaash investigative platform for another 15 days, according to a statement from the platform’s Facebook page.
“Their detention was extended without any new questioning, without being asked to respond to the accusations against them, and without being presented with any evidence to substantiate those allegations,” the statement noted.
In late September, Matsadaash reporters were arrested on charges of joining and financing a terrorist group and spreading false information — a common set of allegations leveled against journalists and political critics in recent years.
Egypt ranks 169th among 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
