The Ruling Against Journalist Lina Attalah and Mada Masr Is a Travesty of Justice and a Dangerous Escalation in the Crackdown on Independent Journalism

The undersigned human rights organisations denounce the ruling against Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Mada Masr, issued by the Ninth Circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court. The court ordered Atallah detained pending payment of a 3 million EGP fine, and the Mada Masr website was ordered closed, following a hearing marred by serious violations of the right to a defence. 

The organisations consider this ruling a direct punishment for independent journalism and a dangerous escalation in the ongoing campaign to silence the few remaining independent media outlets in Egypt. Just weeks earlier, the entire journalistic team of the Matsaddaksh platform had been arrested as part of this campaign.

The undersigned organisations call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately cease their campaign of intimidation and security and judicial persecution of independent journalists, release all journalists imprisoned for fulfilling their professional obligations and exercising their right to free expression, and to reinstate the Mada Masr website and grant its operational license. We also call for urgent amendments to the Law Regulating the Press and Media establishing a notification-based licensing system as stipulated in Article 70 of the Constitution.

On 21 October, Lina Attalah was questioned in connection with Case No. 9072 of 2026 and charged with managing a website without a license and publishing false news with the aim of disturbing public order. Following an over six-hour interrogation on Mada Masr’s coverage of prison protests across the country and the legal status of Mada Masr’s licence, she was released on bail of EGP 100,000.

The following day, Attalah learned that she had been referred to trial in Case No. 11743 of 2026 on charges of establishing, managing, and operating a website without a license, under articles 6 and 105 of Law No. 180 of 2018 regulating the press and media and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation.

The court issued its ruling at the first hearing, after the judge did not grant sufficient time to Lina Attalah’s lawyers to review the case file. The judge went further, appointing another lawyer to represent her against her wishes, despite the presence of eight lawyers on her defence team.

Following the ruling, Lina was detained for seven hours before being released after paying the full amount of the fine. During the procedures for her release, she was surprised to learn that she had been sentenced in absentia to one year in prison in an earlier case dating back to 2024.

The ruling comes amid an escalating campaign to shut down independent media and journalism platforms and silence the few remaining independent media outlets in Egypt. On 28 and 29 September, National Security forces arrested all six members of the editorial team of the Matsaddaksh platform and forcibly disappeared them for five days. The journalists were then brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution under Case No. 8083 of 2026, and charged with funding terrorism and joining a terrorist group, and publishing false news, and financing terrorism.

The journalists testified to prosectors that they were tortured and coerced into confessing on record; they were beaten, blindfolded, and subjected to electric shocks.  Without conducting any serious investigation into these allegations, the prosecution ordered the journalists to be held in pretrial detention. 

These incidents are part of a broader pattern of similar cases in recent months, including the repeated summons of Lina Attalah herself for interrogation;  the raid on the offices of the Al-Manassa news outlet and the arrest of its Editor-in-Chief, journalist Nora Younis; the arrest of cartoonist Ashraf Omar, who has been detained for more than two years; the sentencing of activist Ahmed Douma to imprisonment over an opinion article; and the summons of journalist Rasha Azab for questioning on 5 October over opinions she had expressed on social media.

Approximately 26 journalists are currently behind bars for their work in Egypt, which ranks 169th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.

The ruling against Mada Masr further underscores the danger represented by the prior licensing system for news websites. Prior licensing allows the authorities to control the operations of independent media outlets and subject them to prosecution, searches, and closure even after they have applied to regularise their legal status, simply because the administrative authorities have failed to respond to their applications, as was the case with Mada Masr, which applied for licensing on more than one occasion, in 2018 and 2020.

Egypt is cracking down on journalists at the same time as it seeks to secure disbursement of the final €1.5 billion under the European Union’s Macro-Financial Assistance programme by the end of this year. On 24 July 2026, the European Commission disbursed the second of three tranches, claiming that Egypt has thus far fulfilled the requirements stipulated in the EU decision, even as violations against journalists in Egypt continue to escalate.

The undersigned organisations call on the European Union to withhold any further disbursements, and refrain from considering additional assistance to Egypt, until it verifies that Egypt has taken credible steps towards upholding the rule of law and ensuring respect for human rights.

Signatory organisations:

• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
• Egyptian Front for Human Rights 
• El Nadeem Center
• Law and Democracy Support Foundation 
• Sinai Foundation for Human Rights
• Egyptian Human Rights Forum 
• EgyptWide for Human Rights
• Refugees Platform in Egypt