A Cairo court ordered the closure of independent news site Mada Masr on Tuesday 27 October, detaining the editor Lina Attalah for several hours.

Attalah was convicted during the court hearing, as the judge handed down the maximum fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds (about 40,130 GBP), and ordered the website’s closure, and directing the confiscation of its equipment on charges of “operating without a licence”.

Mada Masr paid the 3 million Egyptian pound penalty, which is the maximum penalty available under Article 105 of Egypt’s 2018 Press and Media Regulation Law, in full to secure Attalah’s release from court custody later that day.

During the hearing, the court rejected procedural requests from the defence, including demands to examine documents and hear witnesses, according to Mada Masr. The defence had sought additional time to review the case file and establish the circumstances surrounding the outlet’s licence application.

After deliberations, the judge ordered the courtroom cleared of everyone except Attalah and her defence counsel, according to an account by Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who was present and spoke to Mada Masr. Plainclothes officers and security personnel subsequently entered the courtroom, he said.

The defence refused to present its plea while its requests remained unanswered. The judge then appointed a lawyer who was not part of Attalah’s legal team, prompting objections from her eight chosen lawyers. Attalah also rejected the court-appointed lawyer’s representation, according to Mada Masr, which said the judge declined to record her objection in the session minutes.

The judge subsequently announced the conviction and imposed the fine, website closure, and ordered the confiscation of its property, the outlet reported.

During procedures to execute her release, judicial authorities revealed a separate one-year prison sentence previously handed down against Attalah in absentia in 2024 on charges of “publishing false news” and “operating an unlicensed website”. Her legal team immediately appealed the ruling, securing a retrial hearing set for 11 November.

The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate has also intervened in the dispute, saying it submitted a memorandum to the media regulator concerning the licensing issue and the associated prosecutions, citing alleged administrative irregularities, the failure to notify the applicant of the decision, and arguments that the dispute should be handled through administrative litigation rather than criminal proceedings.

Attalah’s conviction follows a rapid sequence of legal proceedings that began with her questioning by the Supreme State Security Prosecution on October 21. She was questioned for six hours over allegations of “operating a website without a licence” and “publishing false news”, then released on bail of 100,000 pounds, pending further investigation.

On October 22, prosecutors referred her to trial on charges of “establishing and operating a website without a licence”, while the charge of publishing false news was not included in the formal referral, according to Mada Masr and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The first hearing was scheduled for October 27, less than a week after the referral.

The investigation reportedly included material compiled by the National Security Sector, which included a Mada Masr report on protests in Egyptian prisons following the postponement of changes to criminal procedure rules.

A group of 119 rights organizations and media outlets, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the CPJ, also condemned the prosecution after Attalah was referred to trial last week,  describing the case as an unprecedented attack on press freedom.

Founded in 2013, Mada Masr is one of Egypt’s best-known and most important news organizations and has published reporting on “politically sensitive” subjects ever since. 

The verdict marks a significant escalation in the legal proceedings against the outlet, which has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017, and by extension, an even sharper escalation in the ongoing press crackdown. 

According to the CPJ, 25 journalists are currently languishing in Egyptian prisons, including the entire newsroom of the independent fact-checking platform, Matsada2sh (Don’t Believe It). 

Throughout the crackdown, Mada Masr has not remained silent. Alongside seven other independent Egyptian and regional outlets—including Saheeh Masr, Al Manassa, al-Jumhuriya, Sifr, Megaphone, Nawaat, and Daraj—it launched a joint fact-checking newsroom for Matsada2sh to cover the Egypt Forum, dubbed “The Achievements Forum” by critics, a conference President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said was inaugurated to “lift the government’s spirits.”

Now more than ever, Egypt’s press needs the organized support of trade unions, workers’ groups, and readers everywhere.

The Cairo Report is an independent, English-language socialist publication covering Egypt: politics, labor, policy, and the structures that shape everyday life.

What you can do:

    – Send an email protesting the repression and harassment of journalists in Egypt to the Egyptian embassy in London using our tool on Action Network by clicking here
    – Pass a resolution in your union branch demanding the immediate release of detained journalists and an end to attacks on the independent media