Court orders Egyptian website closed in case seen as test for independent media

CAIRO, Oct 27 - A court ordered a leading independent Egyptian news site closed on Tuesday after its editor-in-chief was convicted of running the site without a licence and taken into custody pending bail, her lawyers and the outlet said.Lina Attalah of the news site Mada Masr, which has won numerous international awards for its reporting, was fined 3 million Egyptian pounds ($53,400), her lawyers told Reuters.The court gave her the maximum penalty, ordering the website to be shut down and its equipment confiscated, Mada Masr said in a statement.After prosecutors referred Attalah to trial last Thursday, a group of 119 rights groups and media outlets, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the case an "unprecedented attack on press freedom".US Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement on the social media platform X on Friday that the charges were baseless and that "journalism is not a crime".Egyptian authorities say the state is committed to upholding freedom of expression but that the media must operate within the law, respect national security and counter misinformation.Founded in 2013, Mada Masr is the most internationally prominent independent outlet in a landscape mostly dominated by media owned by or closely affiliated with the state, and it regularly publishes on politically sensitive topics.It has been blocked inside the country since 2017. Mada Masr says six cases have been brought against it and its journalists over the last six years, though rights groups say this is the first of its kind to be referred to trial.The case against Attalah — named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2020 — follows the arrest last month of the entire newsroom of the fact-checking outlet Matsaddash.The CPJ said the arrests risked "deepening a climate of fear that threatens independent journalism".Mada Masr says it has asked for a licence from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation repeatedly since 2018 but heard nothing back and only learned of a rejection when prosecutors raised the issue during an earlier case in 2022.The outlet contested that decision in court, and says its latest application has been awaiting a response since 2023.The council has not commented on the case but has said that it facilitates procedures for outlets which meet official requirements and is keen to promote freedom of expression. State authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In September, the US waived rights conditions, which include protecting media freedoms, on a portion of the roughly $1.3 billion of military aid it sends Egypt each year. REUTERS