Egypt Court Convicts Mada Masr Editor, Orders Outlet Closed
An Egyptian court has convicted Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Mada Masr, of managing an unlicensed website and ordered the outlet closed, according to Reuters. Her lawyers said she was taken into custody after the ruling.
The New Cairo Misdemeanours Court, which handles less serious criminal cases, imposed a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds. The Committee to Protect Journalists put that at about US$54,000, while the International Federation of Journalists put it at about €48,000. Attalah will be held in custody until she pays. The fine was the maximum penalty available for the charge, which she had rejected. Reuters also reported that the court ordered Mada Masr's equipment confiscated.
Mada Masr was founded in 2013. After a new media law was passed in 2018, the outlet repeatedly applied for an operating licence from the Supreme Media Regulatory Council, the body that oversees media in Egypt. Its applications were either rejected or left unanswered.
Prosecutors summoned Attalah for questioning over allegations of publishing false news and operating a website without a licence. She was released on bail and later referred to trial on the unlicensed-website charge. Amnesty International said she had faced six criminal investigations over the outlet's reporting.
At the Tuesday hearing, Judge Mohammed Mubarak ordered the courtroom cleared of everyone except Attalah, her eight-person defence team and Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human rights group. Mada Masr had said it planned to challenge the constitutionality of the media law at Attalah's first court hearing.
Amnesty described the ruling as a crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt and a dark day for independent journalism. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 25 journalists are currently behind bars in Egypt. Separately, six journalists working for the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh were charged with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
