After the controversy over the Mada Masr case, the Egyptian Judicial Council denies violating trial guarantees
The trial of the editor-in-chief of the independent news website Mada Masr, Lina Atallah, did not take long. In the first session of the case, on Tuesday, the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court issued a preliminary ruling to close the website, confiscate its equipment and devices, and fine Atallah three million pounds (about 55 thousand US dollars), after convicting her of running a website without a license.
After paying the fine, which took several hours to collect during which Atallah was detained, according to her defense team, the Egyptian journalist was released while her lawyers prepare to appeal the ruling.
During the completion of the procedures for Atallah’s release, it was revealed that she had previously been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to one year’s imprisonment in another case related to publishing false news and managing a website without a license. Her defense team decided to appeal against this ruling, and the court set next November 11 to consider the opposition submitted to it.
The session's procedures raised objections from Atallah's defense team, which described the course of the case as "unusual."
Lawyer Nabih Al-Janadi, a member of the defense team, said that the court refused to postpone the case to enable the lawyers to review its papers and prepare for the plea, and it also rejected all of their requests during the session.
He added that the court appointed a lawyer to defend Atallah despite the presence of her original defense team and her refusal to represent her. Al-Janadi said that Lina’s refusal was not recorded in the minutes of the session.
He also said that the court refused to prove the request for rebuttal, while the requests of the assigned lawyer were recorded in the record even though he “did not utter a word” during the session, according to his account, and he described what happened as unprecedented for him as a lawyer.
On the other hand, the Egyptian Supreme Judicial Council issued a statement on Saturday, in which it denied any violation of the right to defense or trial guarantees in the case known in the media as the “Mada Masr” website case, stressing that the established facts in the records of the trial sessions refute what was raised regarding a violation of the right to defense or a violation of legal procedures.
The Council confirmed in its statement that the defense team chosen by Atallah to represent it “refrained” from reviewing the case papers despite the court making the file available for review, which prompted the court to assign a lawyer to defend her and enable him to study the papers and present his defence, considering that this procedure “does not detract from the defense guarantees or the rights of the accused.”
The statement indicated that Atallah carried out the fine imposed by the ruling and signed a waiver of her right to appeal.
The Council added that "the investigation and trial procedures were carried out in accordance with constitutional guarantees and established legal rules," stressing its rejection of what it described as "attempts to question the integrity of the Egyptian judiciary or undermine its prestige."
The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate quickly became involved in the case, as the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshi, announced that the Syndicate would appeal against the ruling, considering that the speed of the case’s progress raises questions about defense guarantees. He said that the period between summoning Atallah for investigation and the issuance of the ruling raises, in addition to the defense team’s observations, question marks about the extent of allowing sufficient time to present defenses and documents.
The ruling was issued eight days after Atallah was summoned for investigation. The prosecution had released her on bail of 100,000 pounds (about 1,850 US dollars), before referring her to trial the next day. The ruling was issued in the first session after only six days of interrogation.
Website without a license
Authorities say Mada Masr, which was founded in 2013, operates without a legal license. In October 2023, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation issued a decision to fine the website, block it for a period of six months, and refer it to the Public Prosecution, before referring its editor-in-chief to the misdemeanor court.
The ruling issued on Tuesday is the latest in a series of legal confrontations that the site has faced over the past years. This is the sixth case that Mada Masr, its journalists, or its editor-in-chief have faced in six years, on charges related to publishing false news or running a website without a license.
On the other hand, Atallah and her defense team confirm that the site has submitted applications for an official license more than once since 2018, the last of which was in June 2023, without receiving a final response yet.
Press and Media Regulation Law No. 180 of 2018 regulates the work of websites in Egypt, and grants the Supreme Council for Media Regulation the authority to issue licenses for them, provided that licensing applications are decided within 90 days of being presented to the Council.
Iman Aouf, head of the Freedoms Committee of the Journalists Syndicate, says that websites other than “Mada Masr” are still awaiting a decision on the licensing applications they submitted years ago.
Licensing system
Dr. Mehrez Ghali, Professor of Journalism and Media Institutions Management at Cairo University, believes that the case reveals loopholes in the licensing system that allow some applications to remain pending for long periods. He says that the current law does not clearly oblige the applicant to be notified in the event of rejection.
Muhammad Al-Diasti, editor-in-chief of a fledgling website, disagrees, who believes that the problem does not lie in the licensing system itself, but rather in meeting the required legal conditions. He says that his website is proceeding with licensing procedures normally, despite the presence of some bureaucracy, considering that “legalizing the conditions of websites is not a restriction, but rather a regulatory procedure in place in many countries.
The Supreme Council for Media Regulation reiterated on previous occasions that it follows a policy aimed at facilitating licensing procedures and reconciling the conditions of media institutions, stressing that applications that meet the legal conditions have already obtained the necessary licenses.
Ghali believes that requiring prior licensing for websites makes Egyptian law more stringent compared to some other experiences, noting that failure to notify applicants of final decisions may place them in a suspended legal situation and make it difficult to resort to the administrative judiciary for appeal.
The professor of journalism and media organization management believes that granting licenses is sometimes linked to political and security considerations, citing websites obtaining licenses within short periods, while others waited years without their requests being resolved, which the Egyptian authorities deny.
As for the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Al-Balshi, he believes that the failure to respond to licensing applications or notify their owners of final decisions represents a procedural defect, considering that any dispute of this kind is supposed to be resolved through the administrative process and the administrative judiciary, not through criminal prosecution.
A previous report by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) indicates that for years, Mada Masr relied on grants from international non-profit institutions in addition to other sources of income, while the site says that it later turned to diversifying its revenues through media services, training, and reader contributions in support of its editorial independence.
An issue that goes beyond Mada Masr
The case sparked widespread reactions, as more than 110 local and international human rights and media organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued a joint statement in which they condemned the ruling against Atallah, calling it an unprecedented escalation that threatens the future of independent journalism, and called on the authorities to end the prosecution of Atallah and grant the site the license that it says it has been seeking since 2018.
A month ago, the authorities arrested six journalists from the “Mtsadeqesh” platform, which specializes in verifying news, and the prosecution decided to imprison them on charges related to joining a terrorist group, financing it, and spreading false news, which sparked widespread reactions within journalistic circles.
During the recent period, Diaa Rashwan, Minister of State for Information, conducted a series of consultations and meetings with media figures, journalists, and academics to prepare for the conference, calling on those working in the field to raise “the real problems” facing the profession and express them frankly, within what he described as “loose,” with the aim of arriving at implementable recommendations.
