On Tuesday 27 October, the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court fined Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah EGP 3 million (~$53,400) and ordered the closure of the website, in a case over operating a website without a licence.
Attalah was released later that day after the fine was paid, Mada Masr said.
Egyptian Streets has issued the following statement.
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Arabic-language newspapers began in Egypt, with Al-Waqa’i al-Misriyya first printed in Cairo in 1828. In 1998, Egypt became the first Arab country to own a satellite of its own, launching Nilesat to broadcast television across the region. Generations of Egyptian reporters and editors built newsrooms that shaped how the region understood itself, and Egyptian journalists remain at work across the Arab world’s media today.
That tradition rests on a simple idea: people are well served by reliable information about their own country. A diverse press, in which independent outlets work alongside established state and private media, helps provide it.
Together, these outlets cover the full range of public life, from politics and the economy to culture, art, business, travel and the achievements of Egyptians at home and abroad. This reporting helps people in their daily lives and introduces Egypt to the visitors and businesses it hopes to attract. It also brings attention to social issues where action and change are needed, so that they reach the people who can address them.
Egyptian Streets began in 2012 with the aim of telling the stories that matter for readers in Egypt and around the world. That remains our mission.
Independent outlets have been dwindling for years, and the few that remain work in a field increasingly crowded with entertainment-driven media, alongside machine-generated and promotional content built to chase clicks and sell ads rather than tell stories. A press that readers trust is good for the country and its people.
It is with this in mind that Egyptian Streets has followed, with deep concern, this week’s ruling in the case of Mada Masr and its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah.
We support the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate’s call for clear, transparent and accessible licensing rules for news websites, applied equally to every outlet. We also believe more needs to be done to sustain independent media in Egypt – and that starts with looking at why there are so few.
We reaffirm our support for a free and diverse media environment in Egypt.
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