Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate head Khaled El-Balshy has submitted a memorandum to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation seeking to resolve Mada Masr’s licensing dispute. The syndicate also prepared a court memorandum supporting editor-in-chief Lina Attalah ahead of her first hearing at New Cairo misdemeanours court, scheduled for 27 October 2026.
The syndicate requested a formal, reasoned response on the licence application, copies of relevant decisions for the company and syndicate, and identification of missing documents. It also called for an end to licence-related prosecutions, less restrictive licensing requirements for news websites, and the lifting of blocks on them.
The memorandum draws on the company’s complaint that it applied on 31 October 2018, paid EGP 50,000 in fees and followed up by registered mail without formal notification of the outcome. According to the complaint, it learned of the rejection during a prosecution investigation in September 2022 and subsequently turned to the administrative courts.
The syndicate says licensing rules require the council to identify missing information and decide applications within 90 days. It argues that failing to notify the company prevents it from completing the process and challenging the decision, and that the dispute should be handled administratively rather than through criminal prosecution.
According to Mada Masr lawyer Hassan al-Azhari’s account, the council told the administrative court that documents and information were missing, prompting a completed application in June 2023 that remains pending. Azhari said Attalah’s referral to trial on 22 October concerned operating an unlicensed website; it did not include the false-news allegation raised during questioning.
Attalah was questioned for more than six hours on 21 October about the website’s licensing and coverage of prison protests, then released on EGP 100,000 bail. An Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights statement warned that potential penalties include a fine of EGP 1 million to EGP 3 million and closure of the website.
The case follows a series of proceedings described by Amnesty International in its 21 October response. The organisation said Mada Masr and its journalists had faced six cases in six years, with investigations in five still ongoing. It cited Attalah’s questioning in August 2025 following an article on detention conditions in Badr 3 Prison, and called for an end to judicial harassment of her and the outlet’s staff.
On 23 October, 119 organisations and media outlets, including Zawia3, signed an appeal demanding an end to Attalah’s prosecution and a licence for Mada Masr. The signatories warned that possible closure threatened the survival of an independent news organisation, and called for an end to the targeting of media outlets and the release of journalists detained for their work.
Archive photo from 2024 by Jennifer 8. Lee via Wikimedia Commons; reformatted. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
