119 Organizations and Media Outlets, Including Zawia3, Demand an End to Lina Atallah’s Trial

Zawia3, along with 118 civil society organizations and independent media outlets from Egypt, the Arab world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, signed an urgent global call on Friday, October 23, 2026, demanding that Egyptian authorities end the prosecution of Lina Atallah, Editor-in-Chief of Mada Masr, four days before the first session of her trial on charges of operating a website without a license.

The call describes Atallah’s referral to trial as “an unprecedented escalation that threatens the future of independent journalism, knowledge production, and the civil society space in Egypt as a whole,” noting that it is the first time a case of this nature has been referred to trial, despite being the sixth case against Mada Masr in six years. It states that this escalation “must be read as a clear intent to entirely shut down the independent media space and permanently close what remains of it.” The signatories warn that the potential penalty ranges from 1 million to 3 million Egyptian pounds ($20,704 to $62,112), with the fine doubled in the event of recurrence, and that the court “can also order the closure of Mada Masr, which would constitute a death knell to one of the last remaining independent media outlets operating in Egypt today.”

The signatories call on Egyptian authorities to take four actions: immediately end the prosecution of Lina Atallah; grant Mada Masr a license “as the law stipulates and requires and in response to its numerous licensing applications”; halt all forms of targeting directed at Mada Masr and all independent media outlets operating in Egypt, including the case of Matsda2sh, in which six journalists remain in pretrial detention “after some were subjected to torture”; and release all journalists detained or imprisoned for their work in Egypt.

The call states that Egyptian authorities “have for years leveraged their repressive and restrictive tactics against independent media outlets to harass journalists, restrict their operations, and chill freedom of expression,” and concludes: “What we are seeing unfold in Egypt today is an egregious escalation that cannot be allowed to stand. Should we remain silent in the face of such, we can only expect the permanent shuttering and closure of what remains of Egyptian independent media, civil society, and organizing. The stakes could not be higher.”

From Summons to Misdemeanor Court in 72 Hours

The call documents the timeline of the case. On October 19, 2026, just hours after Mada Masr joined seven other independent media outlets from the Arab world to establish a solidarity newsroom to fill the gap left by the arrest of the entire Matsda2sh team, Atallah received a summons to appear for questioning before the Supreme State Security Prosecution pending Case No. 9072 of 2026, without disclosure of the reasons for the summons. At the interrogation, which took place on October 21 and lasted over six hours, she was questioned about the outlet’s coverage of the wave of protests in prisons across the country, and about the legal status of the outlet’s license. She was charged with operating a website without a license and “publishing false news with the aim of disturbing public peace,” then released on 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,930.50) bail. On October 22, she learned that she would be referred to trial on charges of establishing, managing, and operating a website without a license, with the first session set for Tuesday, October 27.

The case carries number 11743 of 2026 in the Fifth Settlement Misdemeanor Court, and the trial is being held before the New Cairo Court. The referral was limited to the licensing charge, while the false news charge was not included in the referral order. Mada Masr’s lawyer, Hassan Al-Azhari, criticized the scheduling of a session in less than a week, stating that there was no justification for the rush. The charge is based on Article 6 of Law No. 180 of 2018 Regulating the Press, Media, and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), which requires a license from the council to establish or operate websites, and on Article 105, which imposes a fine of between 1 million and 3 million Egyptian pounds ($19,305.02 to $57,915.06), in addition to closure and equipment confiscation, with the fine doubled in the event of recurrence.

The report at the center of the interrogation concerns a wave of protests inside prisons that followed the Egyptian parliament’s decision to delay the implementation of the new Code of Criminal Procedure, Law No. 174 of 2025, by one year, in an emergency session convened by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on September 30, just hours before the law was due to take effect on October 1. The law had included a maximum pretrial detention period of 18 months. Detainees at Al-Aqrab Prison refused to receive food and take their exercise periods as soon as they learned of the decision, security forces intervened with tear gas, and some detainees were transferred to other detention facilities, according to a statement by Egyptian human rights organizations, and a statement signed by 17 families of detainees, approximately 400 public figures, and 13 parties and organizations, as reported by Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

A License Pending Since 2018

The call details Mada Masr’s efforts to operate within the law: when Law No. 180 of 2018 was enacted, Mada Masr applied for a license the same year and received no response; after the law’s executive regulations were issued in 2020, it filed a second application and again received no response; in 2022, during an interrogation to which Atallah was summoned, the outlet learned that the SCMR had rejected the application “without proper notice or justification”; the outlet then filed a lawsuit in 2022 to challenge the rejection and the authorities’ failure to provide notice and justification; and a most recent application has been pending without a response since 2023. The call states that the outlet “has made every possible effort to register for a license and operate under Egyptian law.”

Zawia3 had previously documented that the council invited websites to regularize their status in 2018, that the outlet’s lawyer filed a case in 2022 before the administrative courts seeking a license and compensation for the lack of response, which the court rejected in May 2023, and that the Court of Appeals prosecution submitted a statement from the council rejecting the application in September 2023 in the context of charging Atallah with operating a website without a license. Al-Azhari states that the most recent application was submitted in June 2023 after completing data and documents the council had said were incomplete, and that no response has been received to this day. The outlet has remained blocked inside Egypt since 2017, among more than 600 websites, including Al Manassa and Zawia3, that were blocked without court orders, according to a statement by the International Federation for Human Rights and 20 other organizations in August 2025. Neither the SCMR nor the public prosecution issued any comment on the call by the time this report was prepared.

The Sixth Case in Six Years — and the First Referral to Trial

The five previous cases referenced in the call began in November 2019, when a security force raided the outlet’s premises and detained Atallah and other journalists for hours before releasing them. In May 2020, she was arrested outside the Tora Prison complex while conducting an interview with Laila Soueif, the mother of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, and was released on bail after being charged with filming without a permit. In September 2022, she and three female journalists from the outlet were interrogated over a report on corruption attributed to the Mostaqbal Watan party, and they were released on bail. In 2024, she was summoned following a complaint by the SCMR regarding a report on scenarios for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. On August 4, 2025, she was summoned on charges of “publishing false news” and “operating a website without a license” in connection with a report published on July 31 about deteriorating detention conditions at Badr 3 Prison, and was released on 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($579.15) bail. With the new bail, the total bail amounts ordered by the prosecution against Mada Masr’s journalists has risen to 177,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,417.76), according to Zawia3’s calculations.

Amnesty International, in a statement sent to Zawia3 on the day of the summons, quoted Yasmine Ahmed, its Senior Director of Regional Impact, as saying it was “utterly shameful that Egyptian authorities are targeting Lina Atallah once again because of the brave and professional journalism of her team,” and that investigations remain open in five cases against her and the outlet’s staff. The organization noted that President El-Sisi spoke the same day at the “Egypt Forum 2026,” saying the government “listens, discusses, and accepts any criticism.” Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 in the 2026 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, and remains among the top ten countries imprisoning journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

An Alternative Newsroom for a Detained Team

The solidarity newsroom that Mada Masr joined hours before its editor-in-chief was summoned was announced by eight outlets on October 19 under the slogan “Six Days for Six Journalists”: Sahih Masr, Mada Masr, and Al Manassa from Egypt; Megaphone, Daraj, and Sifr from Lebanon; Nawaat from Tunisia; and AlJumhuriya from Syria. They came together to fact-check announcements made at the “Egypt Forum 2026,” held between October 19 and 24, with the aim of filling the place of the Matsda2sh team “until they return to their vital journalistic work,” according to Al-Modon.

The six members of the Matsda2sh team are Mohamed Ashraf Abu Omaira, Abdullah Qadri, Islam Barakat, Omar Hilal, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Mohamed Adel. They were arrested on September 28 and 29 after their homes in three governorates were raided. No official body acknowledged their detention for approximately sixty hours; they then appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution after five days, with some reporting they had been subjected to torture including blindfolding, handcuffing, being stripped of clothing, beatings, and electric shocks. Their detention was renewed for 15 days on October 13, pending Case No. 8083 of 2026, on charges of joining and financing a terrorist organization and spreading false news, according to what Zawia3 documented regarding the International Federation of Journalists and LaborStart network campaign calling for their release. The Committee to Protect Journalists stated that Egypt had thereby detained an entire newsroom. The crackdown also extended to participants in the Journalists Syndicate vigil that began on October 3 in solidarity with the six, when journalist Rasha Azab was summoned on October 5 over a post criticizing the Ministry of Interior, and terrorism-related charges were brought against her before she was released on 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($193.05) bail. Journalists announced the suspension of the vigil on October 19, the same day Atallah was summoned.

Who Signed

The call brings together 119 signatures from international and regional human rights organizations, independent media outlets, fact-checking networks, and journalists’ unions across four continents. Below is the full list as it appeared in the call:

1. Access Now
2. Aegis Safety Alliance
3. African Middle Eastern Leadership Project (AMEL)
4. AlJumhuriya Collective | Syria
5. Al Manassa
6. Almidan Association for Development and Human Rights
7. American Committee for Middle East Rights (ACMER)
8. Amnesty International
9. Arab Foundation for Civil Society and Human Rights
10. Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
11. ARTICLE 19
12. Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)
13. Center for International Policy
14. Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)
15. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
16. CUNY Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine
17. Darfur Network for Human Rights
18. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
19. Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
20. Egyptian Front for Human Rights
21. Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)
22. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
23. EgyptWide for Human Rights
24. Electronic Frontier Foundation
25. El Nadeem Center
26. Fareq Platform for Fact Checking
27. Global Voices
28. Houna Feminist Platform
29. Human Rights Watch
30. HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement
31. INSM Foundation for Digital Rights
32. Kawaakibi Foundation
33. Inkyfada
34. International Fact-Checking Network
35. International Federation for Human Rights
36. Intersection Association for Rights and Freedoms
37. Law and Democracy Support Foundation
38. Masaar Foundation
39. MENA Prison Forum
40. Najda For Human Rights
41. PEN International
42. Project 0 | Sifr
43. RACHMA
44. Rappler
45. Raseef22
46. REDWORD for Human Rights & Freedom of Expression
47. Refugees Platform In Egypt (RPE)
48. Samir Kassir Foundation
49. Share3 Media
50. Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR)
51. SMEX
52. Start Point
53. Syrian Center for Policy Research
54. Taafi Initiative
55. Tafnied for OSINT Journalism and Fact-Checking
56. The Continental
57. The Legal Agenda
58. The Public Source
59. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)
60. The Syria Campaign
61. The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)
62. Union of Journalists in Lebanon
63. VERA Files
64. Verify Media Platform
65. Women Journalists Alliance
66. Zawia3
67. Japan Fact-Check Center
68. Center for Media Research – Nepal
69. Drop Site News
70. Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO, Mongolia
71. Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights
72. Women for Justice Foundation (WJF)
73. Sowt Media
74. FactWatch
75. Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
76. Daraj Media
77. The Alternative Policy Institute (BADIL)
78. Athr
79. PesaCheck
80. CivilNet
81. Hibrid.info
82. Delfi (Lithuania)
83. Verificat
84. Wasl Rights
85. Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)
86. Recoupement – Assafir Arabi
87. India Today Fact Check
88. Local Development and Small-Projects Support (LDSPS)
89. Public Works Studio
90. FAKARTANY
91. Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ)
92. Migration and Human Rights Platform
93. Frontliners For Change (FFC)
94. Cedar Centre for Legal Studies
95. Caesar Files for Justice
96. Women Now for Development Lebanon
97. Masaha
98. Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR)
99. Nawaat Website Journalists Association
100. Internews Kosova – KALLXO
101. Soch Media
102. Newtral
103. Musawa
104. People in Need
105. English PEN
106. Huquqyat
107. Pagella Politica / Facta news
108. Källkritikbyrån
109. Dar Justice
110. En toutes lettres
111. Justice Center for Advocacy and Legal Consultations
112. The Key Magazine
113. Till the Last Prisoner
114. Fact Check Cyprus
115. FairSquare
116. Zašto ne (Istinomjer/Raskrinkavanje)
117. Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)
118. Climate Activist Defenders (CAD)
119. Orient XXI

☆ Add Zawia3 to your preferred sources on Google