{"id":50702,"date":"2026-11-11T17:57:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=50702"},"modified":"2026-11-11T17:57:03","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:57:03","slug":"egyptian-court-postpones-retrial-of-independent-news-sites-editor","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/egyptian-court-postpones-retrial-of-independent-news-sites-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian court postpones retrial of independent news site&#8217;s editor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">An Egyptian court this Wednesday postponed until November 18 a retrial of the Editor-in-Chief of <i>Mada Masr,<\/i> a prominent independent news site, on \u200bcharges of publishing false news and running an unlicensed website, the site \u200csaid.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Human rights groups see the <i>Mada Mas<\/i>r case as a litmus test of whether independent journalism can survive in Egypt, the Arab world&#8217;s most populous country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Mada Masr <\/i>said Lina \u200bAttalah&#8217;s defence submitted a request on Wednesday to change the judge, \u200bas he had ruled against her in a previous trial on October \u206027. The judge postponed the case for a week until the Court \u200bof Appeals decides on the change.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In his ruling last month, the judge fined \u200bAttalah 3 million Egyptian Pounds ($56 200) and ordered the closure of Mada Masr after a single hearing on a separate charge that the site had operated without a licence.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Mada Masr<\/i>, along \u200bwith some other independent websites, says it has sought a licence under \u200ba 2018 media law that introduced the requirement but has received no formal decision.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Attalah&#8217;s lawyers \u200csaid \u2060last month that the court had rejected their requests during the session to review the case file and to submit additional evidence and had instead appointed a lawyer for her against her objections.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Egypt&#8217;s Supreme Judicial Council later rejected suggestions \u200bthat the trial was \u200bunfair.<\/div>\n<div>An appeal against \u2060the October 27 ruling is due to be heard on November 25.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the retrial case, Attalah was sentenced in \u200babsentia in 2024 to a year in prison. She only \u200blearned \u2060of that sentence on October 27, while she was being released after the ruling that shuttered her news site.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Egyptian authorities have not responded to <i>Reuters<\/i> requests for \u2060comment on \u200bthe <i>Mada Masr<\/i> case or wider issues \u200bof press freedom. They have repeatedly said the state is committed to freedom of expression but that \u200bmedia must operate within the law and respect national security.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14049,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-50702","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council later rejected suggestions \u200bthat the trial was \u200bunfair.","published_date":"","news_description":"Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council later rejected suggestions \u200bthat the trial was \u200bunfair.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50704,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50702\/revisions\/50704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=50702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}