Egypt court fines Mada Masr editor, orders outlet shut

A Cairo court convicted Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah of managing an unlicensed website, fined the outlet 3 million Egyptian pounds and ordered its website shut, after she was briefly detained in the courtroom.

Why it matters: Mada Masr is one of Egypt's last independent news outlets, and press freedom groups called the verdict an attempt to close the remaining independent media space outright rather than harass it.

Data as of The Guardian's report of October 28, 2026, read in full in this run, including Mada Masr's own account, confirmation from Attalah's lawyer Hassan al-Azhari to AFP, and reaction from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International and PEN International. No Egyptian court document was read directly. Developing item.

A Cairo court has convicted Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Mada Masr, of managing an unlicensed website, and ordered the site shut down. Attalah was briefly detained in the courtroom and released after the outlet paid a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds, about 53,500 dollars, her lawyer Hassan al-Azhari confirmed to AFP, and the hearing also surfaced a 2024 in absentia sentence of a year in prison and a separate 20,000 pound fine, which her defence has appealed, with a retrial hearing set for November 11.

Mada Masr says it applied for a licence three years ago and received no reply. Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who attended the hearing, said the authorities were moving from harassing independent media to wiping it out completely, and PEN International said this was the sixth case brought against Mada Masr in six years and the first referred to trial.

Egypt court fines Mada Masr editor, orders outlet shut

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