An Egyptian court ordered the closure of Mada Masr, one of the country's best-known independent news websites, after convicting its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, of running it without a licence.
The New Cairo Misdemeanour Court gave her the maximum fine of three million Egyptian pounds (about $54,000) and ordered the confiscation of the outlet's equipment and property.
Attalah was taken into custody after the ruling and released several hours later after the outlet paid the fine, according to a statement it published, in which it also said the lawyers plan to appeal the ruling. The verdict came at the end of the trial's first hearing.
Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and a former Mada Masr editor, was in court. He told the outlet after the trial that the judge rejected all of the defence's procedural requests and appointed a lawyer for Attalah that her eight-member defence team did not know.
He added that the court read out the conviction “amid shouts and protests from the defence counsel”.
In its statement, Mada Masr said Attalah has also learnt of a separate one-year prison sentence issued against her in absentia in 2024 on charges of spreading false news and running an unlicensed website. Her lawyers have challenged that ruling, and a retrial hearing is set for November 11.
The case was brought under Article 105 of Egypt's 2018 media law, which carries fines of one million Egyptian pounds to three million Egyptian pounds and allows a court to close an unlicensed website. The Supreme State Security Prosecution questioned Attalah for more than six hours on October 21 about a recent report her outlet published. She was released on bail of 100,000 Egyptian pounds. The next day, prosecutors sent her to trial on the licensing charge.
Mada Masr was founded in 2013 and has been blocked in Egypt since 2017. This is the sixth case against the outlet or its journalists in six years. The outlet says it applied for a license three times, in 2018, 2020 and 2023, and its latest application is still pending.
Before the verdict, dozens of rights groups and media organisations issued a joint statement calling for Mada Masr to be granted a licence. Amnesty International called the ruling “a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt”.
