Egypt journalist Lina Attalah faces jail in media crackdown

Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, head of the independent outlet Mada Masr, faces a retrial on Wednesday after being informed of a one-year prison sentence handed down in absentia in a 2024 case.

Attalah told AFP that Egypt's latest prosecutions of journalists appeared to be "a new chapter" in limiting the already restricted space for independent media. She said the authorities seemed to believe that "silencing the media is the solution to Egypt's problems".

In recent weeks, Egypt has detained the entire staff of fact-checking platform Matsadaash, ordered the closure of Mada Masr and informed Attalah of the one-year sentence. The 2024 case concerns operating without a licence and "publishing false news".

Last month, a misdemeanours court fined Attalah three million Egyptian pounds, about $55,000, for operating the website without a licence. Attalah said Mada Masr had tried to apply for a licence since the relevant law was passed in 2018 but had gone years without a response.

Attalah said she was detained from the courtroom and held for more than seven hours before being released after supporters raised and paid the fine. She said she learned only after her release that the court had ordered Mada Masr's shutdown. An appeal is scheduled for November 25.

Her defence team described a rushed trial and said the judge appointed her a lawyer before proceeding to write the defence statement on that lawyer's behalf.

Attalah said journalists should not be in jail and that she and her team should be able to return to newsrooms rather than spend their days in court. Mada Masr was established in 2013 after Egypt's 2011 uprising and has survived website blocks and closure orders during a wider crackdown on dissent.

The case has drawn international criticism, including from the European Union and members of the US Congress. A group of 135 media and rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has described the current crackdown as unprecedented.