A Cairo court ordered the closure of Mada Masr and convicted editor-in-chief Lina Atallah. The judge fined her $53,000 for operating a website without a licence. Civil society groups said the move is an escalating crackdown against the press. Atallah remains detained pending payment of the fine after the court ruling.
Civil society groups decry move against Mada Masr and editor-in-chief Lina Atallah
A court in Cairo ordered the closure of Mada Masr, one of the last remaining independent news organisations in Egypt, and convicted its founder and editor-in-chief Lina Atallah in what civil society groups decried as an escalating crackdown against the press.
Atallah, an award-winning journalist, was referred to trial last week by the Supreme State Security Prosecutor on charges of establishing and operating a website without a licence.
The judge rejected demands by the eight-member defence team to call witnesses and submit documents on behalf of the digital newspaper, which is widely acclaimed for its reporting and investigative journalism. Atallah was fined $53,000 and has been detained pending payment of the fine.
It comes a month after all six journalists working for Matsadaash, a fact-checking digital platform, were arrested. They have been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation -- named by the prosecution as the Muslim Brotherhood group -- and with publishing false news.
The journalists have denied the charges, pointing out that they have repeatedly debunked false claims by the Brotherhood in the same way they point out inaccuracies in statements by officials.
Three of them said they were tortured, but the prosecutor said a doctor who examined them found no signs of mistreatment.
Atallah was summoned on Thursday last week for questioning by the prosecution regarding a story Mada Masr ran about protests in jails by prisoners angered by the postponement of a new law to reduce prolonged pre-trial detention, which can stretch for years.
Media freedom had flourished in Egypt following the 2011 popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak as president. Restrictions had already started to erode in the latter days of Mubarak's rule, with the launch of privately owned newspapers and television channels.
In 2013, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, then defence minister, led a popularly backed coup against Mohamed Morsi, the elected president from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Under his regime, room for dissent has narrowed and security agencies have gradually come to dominate the media scene by buying out existing organisations and launching new ones.
Just as the political atmosphere changed, Atallah co-founded Mada Masr in 2013. The outlet quickly acquired a reputation as a credible source of information about Egypt.
Atallah has said that Mada Masr had applied for a licence to operate a website in 2018 and again in 2020, but had not heard from the authorities. She found out during an interrogation by the prosecution in 2022 that they had been rejected. A third application for a licence in 2023 remained pending.
Dozens of Egyptian and international civil society groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, had called on the Egyptian authorities in recent days to end legal actions against Atallah and the Matsadaash team and to grant them licences.
"Should we remain silent in the face [of this crackdown], we can only expect the permanent shuttering and closure of what remains of Egyptian independent media, civil society, and organising," they said in a statement. "The stakes could not be higher."