Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah detained after court orders news site's closure

Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah detained after court orders news site's closure

Amnesty International described the ruling against Lina Attalah as “a crushing blow to press freedom” (file photo)

The editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr has been taken into custody after a court found her guilty of running an unlicensed website and ordered it shut down, according to her lawyers.

Lina Attalah will remain detained until she pays the 3m Egyptian pounds ($53,500; £40,100) fine also imposed by the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court. The penalty was the maximum allowed for the charge, which she denied.

Amnesty International said the decision amounted to “a crushing blow to press freedom”.

The ruling came just weeks after six journalists at the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh were accused of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 25 currently imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has presided over what rights groups describe as an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since he led the military’s removal of his predecessor, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, in 2013.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained, mostly Brotherhood officials and supporters, but also prominent secular and liberal activists, media workers and academics.

The CPJ said Mada Masr, founded in 2013, was an important source of critical reporting in Egypt and had long been under pressure from the authorities because of its journalism.

The site had repeatedly applied for an operating licence from the Supreme Media Regulatory Council (SMRC) after a new media law was introduced in 2018, but its requests were either turned down or left without response, the media watchdog said.

Amnesty International said Lina Attalah had also endured “years of harassment and intimidation”, including six criminal investigations linked to Mada Masr’s reporting.

Last week, prosecutors called her in for questioning over accusations of publishing “false news” and running a website without a licence.

Mada Masr’s lawyer said the probe included a recent article the site had published about a wave of protests in prisons across the country, as well as a letter from the SMRC concerning its legal status.

Attalah was freed on bail and later sent to trial before the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court on the charge of operating a website without a licence.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Mohammed Mubarak ordered the courtroom cleared of everyone except Attalah, her eight-person defence team, and Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent human rights group.

Bahgat told AFP news agency that security personnel then entered before the judge announced that the court was rejecting several procedural requests from the defence and appointing its own lawyer for Attalah.

“In a move that astonished all those present, the judge recorded in the official court minutes that the court had appointed a lawyer from the Lawyers' Syndicate to represent the defence,” he said. “Lina herself spoke up to object to this lawyer being appointed to represent her, which the judge refused to record in the court minutes.

“In an even more shocking turn, the judge proceeded to dictate motions on behalf of this lawyer - who had not uttered a single word - and entered them into the official record,” he added.

The judge then announced Attalah’s fine and ordered Mada Masr’s closure “amid shouts and protests from the defence”, before she was detained, according to Bahgat.

Amnesty International said the court’s decision marked “a dark day for independent journalism” in Egypt and called for it to be overturned.

“This draconian ruling is the culmination of years of relentless harassment and unjust proceedings designed to shut down one of the country's last remaining independent media voices,” said Yasmine Ahmed, the group’s senior director for regional impact.

“Lina Attalah should never have been prosecuted for exercising her right to freedom of expression and doing her journalistic job.”

CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said: “If Egypt can put in custody one of its most respected editors and shut down her newsroom, no independent journalist in the country is safe. Attalah must be released immediately, and Mada Masr must be allowed to keep reporting.”