The council of the Journalists Syndicate decided on Thursday, October 29, 2026, to form a legal committee to prepare an appeal against the ruling of the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court against journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr and a member of the syndicate, and to follow all levels of litigation, in addition to forming a committee to communicate with state institutions in preparation for a conference the syndicate will hold on December 3.
The council said in its statement that it respects the independence of the judiciary, that failing to respond to licensing applications and failing to notify applicants are procedural violations, and that the proper path is completing procedures and administrative appeal, not criminal accountability. It added that the absence of fair and transparent licensing rules opens the door to pursuing those running websites through means including blocking. The council also decided to call for a meeting between the syndicate and the websites that have applied for licenses from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to discuss the obstacles to issuing them.
The council demanded licensing rules applied equally to all, obliging the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to issue a reasoned, written decision within a set period that can be appealed, treating a lack of response as approval of the license under existing provisions, reviewing the legal status of blocked websites operating in Egypt, ending blocking by administrative decision, and halting prosecutions related to the lack of a license while granting a period to regularize status. It also demanded the release of journalists imprisoned in cases related to journalistic work and freedom of publication, the issuance of a freedom of information law, and a ban on custodial penalties in publishing cases.
The New Cairo Misdemeanor Court had ruled on Tuesday, October 27, to close Mada Masr and confiscate its equipment, and fined Lina Attalah 3 million pounds ($62,112) on a charge of running a website without a license. Attalah was detained for hours before being released after paying the fine, and during the release procedures it emerged that an in-absentia ruling had been issued in 2024 sentencing her to one year in prison, in a case on charges of spreading false news and running a website without a license, and her defense filed an objection to the ruling, to be heard on November 11.
Photo: Evan Hill of Al Jazeera English via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
