Egyptian Court Orders Independent Site Mada Masr Closed and Fines Its Editor

A court near Cairo on Tuesday ordered the closure of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets, and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, 3 million Egyptian pounds, about $53,500. The ruling also ordered the confiscation of the site’s equipment, according to Egyptian Streets and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The case was heard by the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court. Attalah was charged with running a website without a license, an offense under a 2018 law governing the press and media. The fine was the maximum the law allows. Prosecutors had earlier questioned her on a separate charge of publishing false news, but that charge was not part of the referral to trial.

Mada Masr says it applied for a license in 2018 and again in 2020 and that the Supreme Media Regulatory Council never answered; the council later said in a 2022 court case that the application was incomplete. The site has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017 and reaches readers through workarounds. The Committee to Protect Journalists, citing reports from the hearing, said the defense was prevented from submitting documents and calling witnesses.

Attalah was taken into custody after the verdict. Two Egyptian lawyers told the Committee to Protect Journalists that she would remain held until the fine was paid, and Mada Masr later said, according to Egyptian Streets, that she had paid it in full and been released.

The verdict is not the only legal threat she faces. Mada Masr says that during her release she learned of a one-year prison sentence issued against her in absentia in 2024 on charges of publishing false news and managing an unlicensed website. Her lawyers have challenged it, and a retrial is set for November 11. Tuesday’s ruling came from a court of first instance and can be appealed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the judgment and, earlier this month, described a broader pattern of pressure on Egyptian reporters. Before the hearing, ARTICLE 19 issued an urgent call on her behalf, and Amnesty International urged the authorities to end what it called judicial harassment of Attalah and Mada Masr’s staff.

The prosecution’s case rests on a simple legal point: the law requires news sites to be licensed, and Mada Masr did not hold a license. Defenders of such rules say states have a legitimate interest in regulating who publishes. Mada Masr’s answer is that a licensing body that does not respond to applications is not a neutral regulator but a gate that can be kept shut, and that the outcome is a ruling that silences reporting rather than regulates it.

If the closure order holds, Egypt will lose a source of reporting that has covered courts, security services and the economy when much of the domestic press has stayed quiet. The appeal and the November retrial will show whether the courts treat the licensing law as an administrative rule or as a tool against a particular newsroom.