Egyptian court orders closure of Mada Masr and fines editor Lina Attalah

An Egyptian court has ordered the closure of independent news website Mada Masr and imposed a three-million-Egyptian-pound fine on its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, for operating without a licence. Attalah was detained for several hours after Tuesday’s verdict in Cairo and released after Mada Masr paid the fine, her lawyer and the outlet said. The penalty, worth approximately $53,400 according to DW and the BBC, was the maximum available for the offence.

The court also ordered that the website’s equipment be confiscated. Mada Masr, founded in 2013, is one of Egypt’s few remaining independent news organisations and is known for reporting on corruption, human rights and the military’s role in public life. The outlet said it would appeal the closure order.

The defence challenged the conduct of the hearing. Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who attended, told AFP that the judge rejected requests to review the case file and submit further evidence, then appointed a new lawyer despite objections from Attalah’s eight-person defence team. Bahgat said the judge recorded motions for the newly appointed lawyer even though the lawyer had not spoken.

The BBC reported that the courtroom was cleared except for Attalah, her defence team and Bahgat before security personnel entered and the verdict was announced amid protests from the defence. These accounts come from lawyers and rights advocates rather than an independent court record supplied in the reports. Attalah also learned during her release procedures that she had received a one-year prison sentence in absentia in a separate 2024 case involving allegations of spreading false news and operating an unlicensed website.

Her lawyers have challenged that ruling, with a retrial hearing scheduled for 11 November. Mada Masr has faced legal pressure for years. The site has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017 and says it first applied for a licence in 2018 without receiving a response.

It later learned that the application had been rejected, according to DW, and said another application submitted in 2023 remained unanswered. Six cases have been brought against the outlet and its journalists in the past six years. Egyptian authorities say media organisations must comply with the law, protect national security and counter misinformation.

Rights groups, however, described the verdict as part of a wider crackdown. Amnesty International called it a “crushing blow to press freedom”, while the Committee to Protect Journalists said the closure showed that no independent journalist in the country was safe. The case follows the arrest in September of six journalists from fact-checking platform Matsadaash, who were charged with terrorism-related offences.

Authorities allege links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and the spread of false information; the Interior Ministry denies torture allegations reported by rights groups. The reports put the number of journalists detained in Egypt in connection with their work at 25 or 26, reflecting differing counts from the BBC and EIPR.