• Analysis
Lina Attalah Trial: Mada Masr Editor in Court Over One-Year Prison Sentence
Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, head of the independent outlet Mada Masr, appeared in a criminal court retrial on Wednesday over a one-year prison sentence handed down in absentia in 2024. The case has drawn criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.
The Lina Attalah trial began on Wednesday, when the head of independent media outlet Mada Masr appeared before a criminal court in a retrial of a one-year prison sentence she only learned of last month. The conviction was issued in absentia in 2024, without her knowledge.
Charges and the 2024 sentence
The charges against Attalah are operating a news website without a licence and publishing false news, the latter a charge commonly used against journalists and dissidents in Egypt.
She was informed of the in absentia sentence only upon her release last month from detention in a separate misdemeanour case. In that trial, she was fined three million Egyptian pounds, around $56,000, on similar charges. The misdemeanour court also ordered the shutdown of Mada Masr, described as Egypt's preeminent independent media outlet.
UN and rights groups react
On Tuesday, the United Nations criticised what it called Egypt's "widening assaults on press freedom". Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Attalah's prosecution "raises fresh concerns regarding due process and fair trial".
The criticism extends beyond the UN: US lawmakers, the European Union, and 135 rights groups and media organisations, including the CPJ and Human Rights Watch, have denounced the crackdown. Rights groups including Amnesty International have described it as "unprecedented", after authorities arrested the entire newsroom of factchecking platform Matsadaash in September.
Attalah: licensing as a tool of control
Speaking to AFP ahead of the trial, Attalah said Egypt was trying to limit the already-limited space for independent media, leaving only silence. According to Attalah, Mada Masr filed licensing applications repeatedly for eight years, and they went unanswered for years.
We're not against regulation; we have a problem when the licensing becomes a tool of control, a tool of exclusion.
Her account places the publishing false news charge in the context of a licensing system she says has never answered Mada Masr's applications.
A decade-long squeeze on media
Mada Masr has survived a crackdown on the free press lasting more than a decade. Egypt has long been criticised for its rights record and, over the past decade, has shut down nearly all space for dissent.
The six Matsadaash journalists remain in pretrial detention, with detention orders renewed several times. The UN's rights commissioner said they were reportedly subjected to torture and "forced to record fabricated confessions", and called for their release.
CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said: "Egyptian authorities must immediately end this crackdown, reverse (Mada Masr's) shutdown and uphold constitutional protections for press freedom." She added: "We call on the EU to make these clear demands as part of its political dialogue with Egypt."
The retrial was under way as of Wednesday. The Matsadaash journalists remain detained, with hearings repeatedly renewed, and the UN has called for their release.
