Egypt Court Fines Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah EGP3 Million, Orders Website’s Closure

A Cairo court on Tuesday fined Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah EGP 3 million (~USD 53,500) and ordered the closure of the news website, announced Mada Masr in a statement.

The ninth circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court issued the ruling on the charge of running a website without a licence, Cairo24 reported. Attalah was taken into custody after the ruling, Youm7 reported.

Mada Masr said the court also ordered the confiscation of its equipment, and that Attalah remained in custody at the courthouse on Tuesday afternoon.

The ruling was issued at first instance and can be appealed.

The case

Attalah was tried under Article 105 of Law No. 180 of 2018 regulating the press and media, reported Mada Masr. The article sets a fine of between EGP1 million (USD 17,800~) and EGP3 million (USD 53,500~)  for establishing or running a website without a licence from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, and allows the court to order the site’s closure and the confiscation of its equipment. The fine doubles for a repeat offence.

Investigating authorities referred Attalah to trial on 22 October on the charge of establishing and running a website without a licence, having earlier released her pending investigation, Cairo24 reported.

Mada Masr said she had been questioned by the Supreme State Security Prosecution on 21 October over allegations of running a website without a licence and publishing false news, and released on LE100,000 bail. Tuesday’s hearing was the first in the case.

The licence

Mada Masr has said it applied for a licence from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation in October 2018 and again in August 2020, after the law’s executive regulations were issued, and received no response either time.

According to the outlet’s lawyer, Hassan al-Azhari, the council said in an administrative court case brought by Mada Masr in 2022 that its application lacked some required documents and information.

Mada Masr says it submitted a completed application in June 2023 and has not received a decision.

The council had not commented publicly on the ruling as of Tuesday afternoon.

Reactions and background

Before the hearing, Journalists Syndicate head Khaled El-Balshy said the Syndicate had submitted a memo to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation on Mada Masr’s licence application and would present a legal memo in support of the outlet in court.

The Syndicate argued that a dispute over a licensing decision should go before the administrative courts rather than be handled as a criminal case, and called for the licensing rules to be reviewed.

Mada Masr was founded in 2013. In October 2023, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation ordered its website blocked for six months, saying the outlet was operating without a licence in violation of Law 180 of 2018 and had published false news.