Africaupdated 50m ago2 min read
Egypt Detains Lina Attalah After Court Orders Mada Masr Closure And €850 Fine
13outlets comparedWhere the coverage agrees
7 Western Alternative5 Western Mainstream1 AfricanThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Court in Cairo ordered Mada Masr’s closure and fined Lina Attalah 3 million EGP. Attalah detained by security forces after conviction and during payment of fine.
Attalah detained after closure
Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, was detained by security forces after a misdemeanour court ordered the closure of the website and fined her around €850 for operating it "without a licence". Mada Masr said security personnel then "surrounded her, lifted her off the ground and carried her out of the courtroom", and the outlet added that she remained in custody at the courthouse.
Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said the judge delivered his ruling "amid shouts and protests from defence lawyers" shortly before Attalah was detained. The court ordered the closure of Mada Masr and fined Attalah around €850 after a single hearing, according to Mada Masr, while the independent outlet said the judge ordered the website shut and fined her for operating without a licence.
Fine, confiscation, due process
An Egyptian court convicted Lina Attalah of operating a website without a license on Tuesday, fining her 3 million Egyptian pounds and ordering the outlet's closure and the confiscation of its equipment. Mada Masr reported that the court rejected the defense's requests to review case documents and hear witnesses before asking Attalah's lawyers to present their closing arguments, and the defense team declined, saying the court had failed to address its requests.
Amnesty International said the decision represented "a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt" and described the ruling as a "dark day for independent journalism in the country." The International Federation of Journalists said the court ordered the closure of Mada Masr and took the journalist into custody following the ruling, and it quoted IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger saying the authorities were "cracking down on independent media."
Wider crackdown and stakes
Egyptian authorities had blocked Mada Masr for domestic audiences in 2017, and the outlet said it applied for a licence several times since 2018 but the Supreme Media Regulatory Council never responded. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the conviction and called on Egyptian authorities to reverse the ruling, release the journalist immediately, and end their escalating campaign against independent journalism.
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," and she added that Attalah must be released immediately. Amnesty International said the verdict came "just weeks after the arbitrary detention of six journalists from the Matsadaash fact-checking platform" and linked the case to the continued blocking of hundreds of news websites and civil society organizations across the country.