Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah: We Are Not the Problem

In an interview with The Associated Press, Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Egypt's independent news platform Mada Masr, stated that silencing journalists will not solve the problem and will only lead to the spread of disinformation. The site, which has a thirteen-year history and is fighting against a closure order, faces the threat of being shut down following Attalah's conviction for operating a website without a license.

In an interview in Cairo, Lina Attalah stated that she is facing both a closure order for the news site she co-founded and the risk of imprisonment. Late last month, a court found Attalah guilty of operating a website without a license and ordered the closure of Mada Masr. During the trial, Attalah learned that another court had sentenced her in absentia to one year in prison and a fine on charges of spreading false news. Attalah, who is set to be retried for this decision on Wednesday, is also preparing to appeal the closure order at a hearing on November 25. The Mada Masr team reports that they applied for a license in 2018 but received no response, and the site has been blocked within Egypt since 2017.

While the Egyptian Embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Supreme Judicial Council stated on October 31 that the trials were conducted within the framework of constitutional guarantees and rejected attempts to cast a shadow over the impartiality of the judicial system. On the other hand, according to a 2016 report by Reporters Without Borders, Egypt ranked 169th out of 180 countries in press freedom, and at least 26 journalists arrested in recent years remain in prison. While Human Rights Watch described the process as an attack on independent media, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan also drew attention to the increasing pressure on press freedom.