The Supreme State Security Prosecution on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, decided to release Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah on bail of 100,000 pounds ($2,070), pending Case No. 9072 of 2026 (Supreme State Security), after charging her with the two charges of running a website without a license and spreading false news at home and abroad, in an investigation that lasted more than six hours.
The prosecution’s questions touched on a report recently published by Mada Masr about a wave of protests in prisons following the postponement of the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Law, and also included, according to lawyer Mokhtar Mounir, inquiries about the nature of the website’s work since its founding and the steps its management took to obtain a license.
The case is the sixth against Mada Masr, its journalists and its editor-in-chief over the past six years, and the new bail raises the total financial bail imposed by the prosecution on the website’s journalists to 177,000 pounds ($3,665). Mada Masr had announced on Monday, 19 October, the summoning of Attalah by the State Security Prosecution for questioning, while Amnesty International called for an end to the judicial harassment against her.
Mada Masr has sought a license from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation since 2018, when the council called on websites to regularize their status, then applied again for registration in 2020 after the regulations of the Press and Media Regulation Law were issued, and the council did not respond to the application either time, before the Appeals Prosecution submitted, in September 2023, a statement from the council rejecting the license application, in the context of charging Attalah with running a website without a license. The website’s lawyer filed a lawsuit in 2022 before the administrative judiciary to obtain the license and compensation for the council’s failure to respond, which the court rejected in May 2023.
Photo: International Journalism Festival via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
