Human Rights Orgs Denounce Egypt's Arrest of Mada Masr Editor Lina Attalah

Attalah was accused of publishing false news and operating without a license amid Egyptian authorities’ extensive crackdown on independent press.

Prominent Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Egypt's independent news outlet Mada Masr, is facing a one-year prison sentence among other penalties in a targeted crackdown on press freedom.

Summoned to court in Cairo last month on charges of publishing false news and operating the news site without a license, Attalah learned during the proceedings that she had been handed a year-long sentence in absentia on similar charges in 2024 without her knowledge.

Human rights and press freedom organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and the International Federation for Human Rights, have publicly condemned the charges against the journalist and Mada Masr, decrying her prosecution as a “Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice.”