Egyptian court fines Mada Masr editor Lina Attalah and orders independent news site shut

The verdict and fine

A court in New Cairo convicted Lina Attalah, founder and editor-in-chief of the independent news site Mada Masr, of running a website without a licence, an offence that reports describe as carrying the maximum penalty. The verdict was handed down on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. Judge Mohamed Mubarak imposed a fine of three million Egyptian pounds, about 48,000 euros, and ordered the site closed and its property seized. The Financial Times put the fine at $53,000 in its own reporting. The court's decision came after a short hearing that the outlet and rights groups described as rushed.

Custody and the hearing

Security forces took Attalah into custody after the ruling, but accounts differ on where and for how long. Mada Masr said she was still detained inside the courthouse. Amnesty International, as cited by Berliner Zeitung, said she was held in police custody until the fine was paid. Judicial sources told EFE that her defence was expected to appeal or pay the fine to secure her release. Mada Masr said the session was suspended for deliberation after the defence asked for time to review the case file. Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who attended the hearing, said the judge then ordered everyone out of the room except Attalah and her defence team. When proceedings resumed, the judge upheld the rejection of every defence motion, including requests to submit documents or call witnesses. He also appointed an outside lawyer although eight lawyers chosen by Attalah were in the room, and her objection was not recorded, according to Mada Masr.

Years of licence refusals

Attalah co-founded Mada Masr in 2013. The authorities blocked the site in 2017, along with hundreds of other websites. According to Amnesty International, the outlet applied repeatedly to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation after the 2018 media law, first in 2018 and again in 2020, and received no reply. In 2022 it learned that the application had been rejected without reasons, and a lawsuit against that decision failed. The outlet filed again this year with all the required documents and reported no response. ANSA counted the trial as the sixth legal proceeding against Attalah and Mada Masr in six years, and the first to reach an actual trial. According to RSF, Attalah had been released on bail on 21 October after a six-hour interrogation, before the case was referred to court.

Wider crackdown

Amnesty International and CPJ described the case as an attack on press freedom. Reporters Without Borders ranks Egypt 169th of 180 countries in its press freedom index. The EIPR counts 26 journalists currently held for their work, according to ANSA. The Financial Times reports that a month before this case, all six journalists working for the fact-checking platform Matsadaash were arrested. They were charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, which the prosecution named as the Muslim Brotherhood group, and with publishing false news. The journalists deny the charges, and three of them said they were tortured, though the prosecutor said a doctor who examined them found no signs of mistreatment. Prosecutors had also questioned Attalah about a Mada Masr story on prison protests over the postponed reform of pre-trial detention.