An Egyptian court convicted the editor-in-chief of independent news website Mada Masr of running it without a licence on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, ordered the site closed and fined her 3 million Egyptian pounds (about $53,400), according to Reuters and Human Rights Watch. The Egypt Mada Masr closure targets one of the country’s few remaining independent newsrooms, and rights groups condemned the ruling as a blow to press freedom.
Lina Attalah, Mada Masr’s editor-in-chief, was taken into custody after the hearing at the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court and released after about five hours, once the fine was paid, her lawyers and the outlet said. The court also ordered the confiscation of the outlet’s equipment, according to Mada Masr.
A single hearing, disputed procedure
Attalah’s lawyers said the court rejected their requests during Tuesday’s session to review the case file and submit additional evidence, and instead appointed a lawyer for Attalah over her objection, despite her own eight-person defence team being present, according to Reuters and the outlet’s account. Human Rights Watch described the conviction as following a single, rushed hearing and called it “a complete travesty of justice.”
The outlet, founded in 2013, says it has applied repeatedly for a licence since 2018, received no reply to some applications, learned in 2022 that one application had been rejected without notice, and still has a 2023 application pending, according to its own statements reported by multiple outlets. Prosecutors referred Attalah for trial on October 22 on charges of establishing and managing a website without a licence, after questioning her on October 21 about licensing and reporting on prison protests.
Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation had not publicly commented on the verdict by Tuesday afternoon, according to reporting. The Egyptian authorities’ position, as stated in other cases, is that media organisations must comply with licensing requirements and national security laws.
A second case surfaces on release
During Attalah’s release procedures, she learned she had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to one year in prison on charges linked to publishing false news and running an unlicensed website, according to Mada Masr. Her lawyers have challenged that sentence, and a retrial hearing is set for November 11, the outlet said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said the ruling was “a devastating blow to press freedom in Egypt,” with regional director Sara Qudah warning: “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.” Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, according to reporting, and the number of journalists jailed in Egypt had reached 25 as of late October, the committee said — the highest since 2021.
The ruling came a month after authorities arrested the entire newsroom of the fact-checking outlet Matsadaash, according to reporting.
What happens next: Attalah’s legal team has said it will appeal the closure ruling, and the November 11 retrial hearing on the separate 2024 sentence is the next court date.
