Egypt’s Mada Masr case: two proceedings and the space for independent journalism
The Mada Masr case concerns both a newsroom’s survival and the personal liberty of its editor, Lina Attalah: the sources distinguish the 27 October closure order from the retrial of a conviction issued in her absence.[2][3]
Il Post’s feature published on 13 November brings the case back into focus, but the closure was not ordered today.[1]
## Two hearings, not one
Amnesty International’s urgent action of 3 November records a fine of three million Egyptian pounds and a closure order for operating an unlicensed website; it gives 25 November as the date for the appeal against that ruling.[2]
Reuters, in an 11 November dispatch read on TimesLIVE, reports that Attalah’s retrial was postponed until 18 November after the defence requested a different judge.[3]
That newer account updates the 11 November hearing date still mentioned in Amnesty’s earlier notice: the older document does not describe the hearing’s outcome.[2][3]
The closure appeal and the retrial of the in-absentia conviction are not the same hearing.[3]
According to Reuters, Attalah only discovered on 27 October that she had been sentenced in 2024 to a year in prison; the outlet separately challenges the order that stopped its publishing.[3]
## A requested licence and a disputed process
Il Post describes Mada Masr as Egypt’s last independent outlet of particular significance, while explicitly noting that smaller organisations still work under considerable difficulties.[1]
“Last” should therefore not become an absolute claim that no independent Egyptian journalism remains.
Reuters reports the outlet’s statement that it sought a licence under the 2018 media law without receiving a formal decision.[3]
Amnesty calls for the closure order to be quashed and the outlet to operate freely: this is the human-rights organisation’s position, not a court ruling.[2]
## Responsibility requires attribution
Reuters reports that Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council rejected suggestions that the trial was unfair and that the authorities had not answered the agency’s requests for comment on the case.[3]
The original judgments were not obtained: allegations and objections to the proceedings remain attributed to the sources making them.
The political issue is tangible: when the ability to publish depends on a contested licence, administrative procedure and freedom of information become inseparable. The outcomes of the 18 and 25 November hearings remain to be checked.[2][3]
## Sources
[1] https://www.ilpost.it/2026/11/13/mada-masr-giornale-egitto
[2] https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde12/1633/2026/en
[3] https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2026-11-11-retrial-of-mada-masr-editor-postponed-by-egyptian-court