Egyptian court orders closure of Mada Masr website and imposes million-pound fine on editor-in-chief

A Cairo Misdemeanor Court has issued a ruling ordering the closure of Mada Masr, one of the last prominent independent news outlets in Egypt, and imposing a fine of three million Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $53,400) on editor-in-chief Lina Atallah on charges of operating an electronic website without a license.

The ruling also mandated confiscation of the website's equipment and devices. Atallah was arrested following the issuance of the ruling on Tuesday and was released hours later after Mada Masr paid the fine in full.

During the release procedures, Atallah learned of a separate in absentia verdict issued against her in 2024 sentencing her to one year in prison on charges of publishing false news and operating a website without a license. Mada Masr stated that her lawyers had appealed the verdict, and a retrial hearing was scheduled for November 11.

The website published an editorial in which it stated that it entered the courtroom "with a measure of faith in the law and the justice system," but added: "What we found in the court left nothing of this faith."

According to Mada Masr's account, the court rejected motions by lawyers to examine the case file, present additional evidence, and summon witnesses, then appointed "an unknown entity" to defend Atallah despite the presence of eight of her lawyers in court. The judge recorded the motions of the appointed lawyer in his own handwriting before issuing the ruling at the maximum penalty. Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who attended the session, affirmed that the court proceeded with appointing the lawyer despite Atallah's explicit objection. The website's lawyer Hassan Al-Azhari stated in comments to the Zavia3 platform that the court rejected the defense motions before taking this step.

The ruling was based on Article 105 of Egypt's 2018 Media Law, which stipulates a fine ranging from one million to three million pounds ($17,800 to $53,400), in addition to closure and confiscation, for anyone operating an electronic website without a license.

The website clarified that it had submitted a licensing application to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation in 2018 and again in 2020 without receiving a response, and only learned of the rejection when prosecutors raised it in a previous case in 2022. In 2023, an administrative court upheld the council's rejection on the grounds of the absence of proof of the website's trademark registration, while Mada Masr's lawyers asserted that they had submitted a registration certificate. The website submitted a new application in June 2023 that remains under review.

No immediate official comment was issued by Egyptian authorities. The head of the Press Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, announced that the syndicate would resort to court to appeal the ruling. The website was founded in 2013, has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017, and according to human rights organizations, it has faced six lawsuits over six years with this being the first to reach trial.