Cairo (AFP) – “Silence” the few remaining free press in Egypt: Lina Attalah, director of the main independent media Mada Masr, who risks prison, denounces in an interview with AFP the increase in legal proceedings against the media.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 11:50 Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 12:39

In recent weeks, the Egyptian authorities arrested the entire team of the fact-checking site Matsadaash, ordered the closure of the Mada Masr website and informed its manager of a one-year prison sentence handed down in absentia.

“This seems to open a new chapter in the attempt to restrict the already very limited space available to independent media,” points out the forty-year-old.

The government seems to consider that, faced with economic and political difficulties in an explosive regional context, "the solution consists of reducing the media to silence", she adds.

Cairo has long been criticized by human rights defenders for its record in this area, and has, for more than a decade, closed almost all space for protest.

Lina Attalah is one of the most prominent journalists in Egypt, where 26 of her colleagues are currently behind bars.

The prosecutions targeting her have been condemned abroad, notably by the European Union and American elected officials, and 135 NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have denounced an "unprecedented" repression underway.

While "very few organizations now have expertise in rigorous reporting", "all we are left with is silence", laments Ms Attalah.

Questioned in full audience

At the end of October, after a single hearing, a Cairo court ordered the closure of Mada Masr, and imposed a fine on the journalist of three million Egyptian pounds (more than 49,000 euros) for having operated it "without a license".

“Since the adoption of the law in 2018” requiring such authorization, the site has submitted three requests, rejected or left unanswered, she explains.

"We are not opposed to regulation. Our problem is when licensing becomes a tool of control and exclusion."

His team of eight lawyers described a speedy trial, during which the judge himself appointed a lawyer to defend the accused, before “starting to write the pleading” on her behalf.

The journalist was then surrounded by police, who lifted her from the ground and walked out of the courtroom.

“I felt like I was being kidnapped,” she says. “I didn’t hear the verdict because the police were dragging me out of the room.”

She was then detained "for more than seven hours: I was panicked, I was afraid."

It was only upon her release, several hours after her supporters paid the fine through a collection, that she learned that the court had ordered the closure of her media outlet.

The appeal hearing is set for November 25.

But she was also told that in 2024, she had been sentenced to one year in prison in absentia for practicing without a license and "publishing false news", an accusation frequently brandished in Egypt. On Wednesday, she must be retried in this case.

Editorial offices and courts

"I hope this case will be dropped, because journalists should not go to prison. I should not go to prison. The Matsadaash journalists should not go to prison. The other 26 journalists should not be in prison."

“We should be allowed to return to our editorial offices, instead of making us spend our days in the courts,” she annoys, stressing that “until these cases are resolved”, the team of her media – 50 people – cannot do “much journalism”.

Mada Masr was founded in 2013, two years after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

“I felt that something was changing profoundly, (...) and that we had to keep track of it,” she says.

Battered since its beginnings, the media has held on, offering a rare springboard to young journalists and gaining a loyal audience. It is widely considered a vital source of information on the Arab world's most populous country.

An essential role, according to Lina Attalah, given the strategic importance of the country "hailed as a haven of stability in the middle of a chaotic region", with war on its borders and on the other side of the Red Sea.

Relying on power alone to maintain this stability is a "bad bet", she believes: leaving "a margin for civil and political rights" should be part of the calculation.

© 2026 AFP

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