CAIRO — Egyptian authorities released prominent journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Mada Masr, after a court ordered her website shut down. Attalah was briefly detained following a Cairo court conviction for managing an unlicensed website.
Mada Masr said Attalah was released after the outlet paid a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds, approximately $53,500. Hassan al-Azhari, Attalah's lawyer, said her legal team discovered she had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to one year in prison and an additional fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds. A new court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 11.
Attalah founded Mada Masr in 2013. The outlet said it applied for an operating license three years ago but received no response from Egyptian authorities.
The detention and shutdown order follow the arrest of the entire six-person team from Matsadaash, an independent fact-checking platform. The Matsadaash journalists were charged with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Attalah's legal team said she was effectively ambushed during a court appearance. A judge appointed a defense lawyer for her before security personnel detained her within the courtroom.
Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who attended the court hearing, said the crackdown indicates Egypt's security agencies are moving from harassing independent media to eliminating them entirely. Bahgat said the actions risk erasing the narrow margin of press freedoms maintained in Egypt over the past decade, which had allowed a limited number of news outlets and human rights organizations to operate despite frequent harassment.
The recent moves against independent media coincide with statements from Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi since August, in which he has claimed a conspiracy to destabilize the country and stated his intention to remain in power until 2030.
