The Cairo criminal court pushed the retrial proceedings to 18 November following the defence's formal recusal request. Attalah had already received an unaware one-year prison sentence in 2024, alongside a separate ruling imposing a 3 million Egyptian pound fine and shuttering Mada Masr. United Nations monitors raised alarms over fair trial standards while calling for the release of six journalists from the independent platform Matsda2sh who face terror-related charges.
Key points
Independent journalism faces intensifying legal and regulatory pressure designed to shutt…: Independent journalism faces intensifying legal and regulatory pressure designed to shutter critical newsrooms across Egypt.
International human rights bodies have raised severe concerns regarding fair trial guaran…: International human rights bodies have raised severe concerns regarding fair trial guarantees and the incommunicado detention of media workers.
Systematic website blockages and recurring judicial prosecutions continue to restrict the…: Systematic website blockages and recurring judicial prosecutions continue to restrict the domestic reach of investigative reporting outlets.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
- Published
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, another Cairo 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.
Legal counsel for independent news outlet Mada Masr is challenging the impartiality of Judge Mohamed Mubarak over previous severe penalties levied against the organization. The case targets reporting on the Gaza conflict and border operations amid growing international scrutiny over Egypt's treatment of critical journalists. A ruling on the judge's disqualification will dictate the trajectory of charges carrying potential imprisonment for publishing false news.
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