Egypt's Last Surviving Free Press Being 'Silenced': Leading Journalist Facing Jail
Rights groups call the crackdown unprecedented as authorities detain journalists, fine Attalah $55,000 and block independent reporting.
- On Wednesday, Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, faces a retrial for a 2024 case while authorities have ordered the closure of her independent news outlet.
- Authorities handed Attalah a one-year prison sentence in absentia during 2024 for "publishing false news," a charge commonly levelled against journalists, as part of a broader crackdown that detained the entire staff of fact-checking platform Matsadaash.
- The current crackdown, described as "unprecedented" by 135 media organisations and rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has left 26 journalists currently behind bars in Egypt.
- Frustrated that "until the cases are resolved, there isn't much journalism" her team of 50 can do, Attalah said they should be allowed to return to newsrooms instead of spending days in courtrooms.
- An appeal is scheduled for November 25, marking a new chapter in limiting independent media. Attalah told AFP "it's hard to separate between those two incidents" as Cairo continues to narrow space for the free press.
37 Articles
37 Articles
Egypt’s Mada Masr Chief Lina Attalah Faces Retrial
Lina Attalah, the head of Egypt’s independent outlet Mada Masr, is due to appear in a criminal court on Wednesday, 11 November, facing possible prison time in a retrial that has drawn international attention. She is being retried over a one-year prison sentence handed down in absentia (while Attalah was not present in court) in 2024, for operating a news website without a licence and “publishing false news.” She learned of the sentence last m…
The free press in Egypt is under immense pressure. Within a month, the entire six-member editorial staff of investigative platform Matsaddash was arrested, and a judge ruled that the independent news site Mada Masr must close. Editor-in-chief Lina Attalah was detained briefly and had to pay a fine equivalent to approximately 50,000 euros. Attalah was also informed that she had been sentenced in absentia two years earlier to a one-year prison te…
Egypt: How Egypt's Laws Are Used to Choke Its Independent Press
The Conviction of Mada Masr Editor-in Chief Lina Attalah highlights the persistent threat of how Egyptian authorities use licensing requirements, criminal penalties, and website blocking to silence independent journalism, despite constitutional guarantees of press freedom.
Fifteen years after the revolution in Egypt, freedom of the press is more than ever repressed. The prominent journalist Lina Attallah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, risks prison and her media, one of the last strongholds of the Egyptian free press, is threatened with closure.
"What I miss the most now is my work: journalism. I fear what awaits me in court, but my hope is simply to return to the editorial office, to do my job" . The journalist who can no longer do his job is Lina Attalah, 44, celebrated by Time among the [...] The article Egypt, journalist Lina Attalah risks a year in prison: "What I miss the most is my work" comes from Il Fatto Quotidiano.
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