CAIRO, Egypt — A New Cairo misdemeanor court on Tuesday convicted Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of independent news outlet Mada Masr, of managing a website without a license, imposed a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds and ordered the outlet closed.
The court also ordered Mada Masr’s equipment confiscated. Attalah was taken into custody after the verdict. Reporters Without Borders said she was released after more than seven hours in detention. The original detention order was reported by Mada Masr, her lawyers and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Reuters independently reported the same central facts after speaking with her lawyers.
Mada Masr says it repeatedly applied for an operating license beginning in 2018. The newsroom says regulators rejected or did not answer its applications and that its latest request has remained pending since 2023. Egyptian authorities have said media organizations must comply with the law and that the state supports freedom of expression, but state authorities and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s ruling, Reuters reported.
Founded in 2013, Mada Masr publishes investigative reporting in Arabic and English and is among Egypt’s most prominent independent outlets. Its website has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017.
The Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists condemned the ruling as an attack on press freedom. Those characterizations are advocacy positions; the confirmed court action concerns the outlet’s licensing status.
It was not immediately clear whether an appeal would pause the closure order or when authorities would attempt to seize equipment. The Associated Press reported before trial that prosecutors had also questioned Attalah about an allegation of publishing false news, but that allegation was not included in the court referral. Tuesday’s conviction concerned the licensing charge.