Egyptian journalist's retrial adjourned as UN warns of 'assaults on press freedom'

A criminal court in Cairo has postponed the retrial of the prominent Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, whose case has drawn international condemnation.

Wednesday's opening hearing was adjourned until 18 November after defence lawyers representing the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Mada Masr requested a new judge.

The UN has warned of "widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including the targeting, persecution and harassment of independent journalists".

Attalah told the BBC that a recent crackdown was meant to "send a chilling message" to "the very few newsrooms that are left".

She warned: "Everybody should be careful, everybody should be scared, everybody should be wondering if they are next."

Set up 13 years ago, Mada Masr became Egypt's leading independent news site with Attalah as its editor-in-chief and co-founder.

Last month, the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court convicted her of running a website without a licence - which she said she had tried in vain for years to obtain. She was issued a hefty fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds ($56,000; £42,000) and Mada Masr was ordered to shut down.

After that trial, Attalah found that a court had previously given her a one-year prison sentence, without her knowledge, for "spreading false news" - a charge often used against journalists and dissidents - as well as operating a website without a licence. It was issued in absentia in 2024, even though she was in the country at the time. Attalah is now being retried in that case by the same judge.

At the opening session, Attalah's defence team requested the judge's recusal, arguing that he had "already formed a conviction in mind against the defendant", Mada Masr cited its lawyer Hassan al-Azhar as saying, external. The judge went into recess before adjourning proceedings for a week to allow the court to consider the defence's request, he added.

Mada Masr also said Attalah's appeal against last month's conviction was scheduled to take place on 25 November.

Egypt has largely stifled freedom of the press, ranking 169th out of 180 countries for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders' 2026 analysis. The group says that at least 26 journalists who were arrested in recent years remain in detention.

While most newspapers and television stations now keep to government lines, Mada Masr remained a rare, independent and investigative news source in Egypt. However, since 2017 the site could only be viewed from outside the country.

It had reported on alleged corruption and human rights abuses, and provided deep coverage of politics and economics, as well as regional upheaval and wars in Libya, Sudan and Gaza.

In her BBC interview on Sunday, Attalah insisted that the factual reporting and professional standards of Mada Masr had an important role to play in Egyptian society, which could benefit the government.

"It's much better if you have a little space left to have it open for professional media organisations who do rigorous reporting, because if we disappear, then you make the space for conspiracies and disinformation," she said.

"People need to know, people need to consume information and you're shooting yourself in the foot if you're killing the newsrooms that do it properly."

In September, six journalists with the independent fact-checking platform, Matsda2sh - constituting its entire newsroom - were arrested in home raids by the Egyptian authorities and held incommunicado for nearly a week.

They have since been charged with joining the Muslim Brotherhood and financing terrorism, and their lawyers report that several were beaten and electrocuted in detention. They say that no evidence has been presented linking them to the Brotherhood.

Egypt's former president Mohammed Morsi – who was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood – was removed from power by the military, led by Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, in July 2013 after widespread protests. Under Sisi, who became president the following year, the Islamist movement was classed as a terrorist organisation, leading to a widespread clampdown.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thameen Al-Kheetan, called for the Matsda2sh reporters to be released, with all charges dropped.

He also said the case against Attalah "raises fresh concerns regarding due process and fair trial".

"We call on Egypt to end all forms of harassment of journalists and media outlets, and to respect and fulfil the right to freedom of expression, including the right to information," Al-Kheetan said.

"The steps taken to suppress the continued work of both Matsda2sh and Mada Masr must be overturned. The people of Egypt have a right to read and hear views expressed through these fora on issues of legitimate public concern."

Attalah has suggested the authorities might again be trying to silence independent voices at a time of economic strain in Egypt and regional instability.

It has been widely noted that recent legal action against journalists comes after the US State Department waived human rights conditions on $320m (£240m) in its foreign military funding for Egypt in September. This allowed the funds to be released as part of Washington's annual $1.3bn military aid package.

The BBC asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio whether he had raised the recent crackdown on independent journalism with Egypt's Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, at their meeting about regional tensions in Paris on Monday.

"We didn't discuss it today," Rubio said. "But… like anything else in foreign policy, there's always a balancing act to further the national interest of the United States. And in the end, Egypt has been a reliable and good defence partner of the United States."

"That doesn't mean you agree with everything another government does," he went on, adding that he was not "opining about their journalists".