Lina Attalah: Egypt courtroom fines journalist Lina Attalah and orders Mada Masr’s closure

The CPJ mentioned Mada Masr, which was based in 2013, was an important supply of important reporting in Egypt and that it had lengthy confronted stress from authorities over its journalism.

The website had repeatedly sought an working licence from the Supreme Media Regulatory Council (SMRC) since a brand new media legislation was handed in 2018, however that its functions had been both rejected or left unanswered, the media watchdog added.

Amnesty International mentioned Lina Attalah had additionally confronted “years of harassment and intimidation”, together with six prison investigations over Mada Masr’s reporting.

Last week, prosecutors summoned her for questioning over allegations of publishing “false information” and working a web site with out a licence.

Mada Masr’s lawyer mentioned the investigation included a latest report that the web site had printed a few wave of protests in prisons throughout the nation, in addition to a letter from the SMRC relating to its authorized standing.

Attalah was launched on bail and later referred to trial earlier than the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court on the cost of working a web site with out a licence.

During Tuesday’s listening to, Judge Mohammed Mubarak ordered the courtroom to be cleared of everybody besides Attalah, her eight-person defence staff, and Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an unbiased human rights group.

Bahgat informed AFP information company that safety personnel then filed in earlier than the decide introduced that the courtroom was denying a number of procedural requests made by the defence and appointing its personal lawyer for Attalah.

“In a transfer that astonished all these current, the decide recorded within the official courtroom minutes that the courtroom had appointed a lawyer from the Lawyers’ Syndicate to signify the defence,” he mentioned. “Lina herself spoke as much as object to this lawyer being appointed to signify her, which the decide refused to document within the courtroom minutes.

“In an much more surprising flip, the decide proceeded to dictate motions on behalf of this lawyer – who had not uttered a single phrase – and entered them into the official document,” he added.

The decide then introduced the tremendous for Attalah and ordered Mada Masr’s closure “amid shouts and protests from the defence”, earlier than she was detained, in line with Bahgat.

On Tuesday night, Mada Masr mentioned it had paid the complete tremendous to the courtroom and that Attalah was launched after a number of hours in custody.

“During the discharge procedures, Attalah realized of a one-year jail sentence issued in opposition to her in absentia in 2024, on fees of publishing false information and managing an unlicensed web site,” it added.

“Her legal professionals took steps to problem the ruling, with a listening to in a retrial of the case scheduled for 11 November.”

Amnesty International warned that the courtroom’s verdict marked “a darkish day for unbiased journalism” in Egypt and demanded that it’s overturned.

“This draconian ruling is the fruits of years of relentless harassment and unjust proceedings designed to close down one of many nation’s final remaining unbiased media voices,” mentioned the group’s senior director for regional impression, Yasmine Ahmed.

“Lina Attalah ought to by no means have been prosecuted for exercising her proper to freedom of expression and doing her journalistic job.”

CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah mentioned: “If Egypt can put in custody certainly one of its most revered editors and shut down her newsroom, no unbiased journalist within the nation is secure. Attalah should be launched instantly, and Mada Masr should be allowed to maintain reporting.”