Egyptian Editor Lina Attalah Detained After Court Orders Mada Masr Closed

Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, has been taken into custody after a court found her guilty of managing a website without a license and ordered the outlet shut down, according to her lawyers.

The New Cairo Misdemeanours Court also imposed a fine of 3m Egyptian pounds, roughly $53,500. That was the maximum penalty available for the charge, which Attalah had rejected. She will remain in detention until the fine is paid.

Amnesty International described the verdict as "a crushing blow to press freedom". The ruling follows by only a few weeks the decision to charge six journalists from the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Egypt is among the world's leading jailers of reporters, with 25 currently behind bars.

Human rights groups say President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since he led the military's removal of his predecessor, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, in 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been detained, mostly Brotherhood officials and supporters, but also prominent secular and liberal activists, media workers and academics.

The CPJ said Mada Masr, founded in 2013, is a vital source of critical reporting in Egypt and has long been under pressure from the authorities. The watchdog said the outlet had repeatedly applied for an operating license from the Supreme Media Regulatory Council since a new media law was passed in 2018, but its applications were rejected or went unanswered. Amnesty said Attalah has faced years of harassment and intimidation, including six criminal investigations linked to Mada Masr's reporting.

Last week, prosecutors summoned her for questioning over allegations of publishing "false news" and running a website without a license. Mada Masr's lawyer said the inquiry covered a recent report on a wave of protests in prisons nationwide, as well as a letter from the regulatory council about the outlet's legal status. Attalah was released on bail and later sent to trial on the licensing charge.

Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, attended Tuesday's hearing and gave an account to AFP. He said Judge Mohammed Mubarak ordered the courtroom cleared of everyone except Attalah, her eight-person defence team and Bahgat himself. Security personnel then entered, and the judge rejected several procedural requests from the defence and appointed a lawyer of his own for Attalah.

"In a move that astonished all those present, the judge recorded in the official court minutes that the court had appointed a lawyer from the Lawyers' Syndicate to represent the defence," Bahgat said. He added that Attalah objected to the appointment, but the judge refused to record her objection. According to Bahgat, the judge then dictated motions on behalf of that lawyer, who had not spoken, and entered them into the record.

The judge announced the fine and the closure of Mada Masr "amid shouts and protests from the defence", and Attalah was then detained, Bahgat said.

Yasmine Ahmed, Amnesty's senior director for regional impact, called the ruling "the culmination of years of relentless harassment and unjust proceedings designed to shut down one of the country's last remaining independent media voices", and the group demanded that it be overturned. CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said: "If Egypt can put in custody one of its most respected editors and shut down her newsroom, no independent journalist in the country is safe. Attalah must be released immediately, and Mada Masr must be allowed to keep reporting."