From BBC News · · 3m
Egyptian journalist's retrial adjourned as UN warns of press crackdown
Lina Attalah, editor of independent news site Mada Masr, faces retrial on charges of operating without a licence after a conviction last month. The UN has condemned Egypt's widening assault on press freedom.
In brief
Lina Attalah, editor of independent news site Mada Masr, faces retrial on charges of operating without a licence after a conviction last month. The UN has condemned Egypt's widening assault on press freedom. Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah's retrial was adjourned as the UN warned of widening assaults on press freedom…
Retrial adjourned in Cairo
A criminal court in Cairo postponed the retrial of prominent Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah on Wednesday. The opening hearing was adjourned until eighteen November after defence lawyers requested a new judge.
Who is Lina Attalah
Attalah is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Mada Masr, an independent news outlet set up thirteen years ago that became Egypt's leading independent news site.
Last month's conviction
The New Cairo Misdemeanours Court convicted Attalah of running a website without a licence. She was fined three million Egyptian pounds, about fifty-six thousand dollars or forty-two thousand pounds, and Mada Masr was ordered to…
Hidden prison sentence
After that trial, Attalah discovered a court had previously given her a one-year prison sentence without her knowledge for spreading false news and operating a website without a licence.
Defence challenges the judge
At the opening session, Attalah's defence team requested the judge's recusal, arguing he had already formed a conviction against her. The judge adjourned proceedings for a week to consider the request.
UN warns of press crackdown
The UN has warned of widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including targeting, persecution and harassment of independent journalists. Egypt ranks one hundred sixty-ninth out of one hundred eighty countries for press freedom.
Attalah's warning to media
Attalah told the BBC the crackdown was meant to send a chilling message to the few newsrooms left.She warned: everybody should be careful, everybody should be scared, everybody should be wondering if they are next.
“Everybody should be careful, everybody should be scared, everybody should be wondering if they are next.”
Fact-checkers arrested and charged
In September, six journalists from independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh were arrested in home raids and held incommunicado for nearly a week.They have been charged with joining the Muslim Brotherhood and financing terrorism.
US military aid and timing
Recent legal action against journalists comes after the US State Department waived human rights conditions on three hundred twenty million dollars in military funding for Egypt in September, allowing funds to be released as part…
US declines to press the issue
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he did not discuss the crackdown with Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Paris on Monday.
The main idea
Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah's retrial was adjourned as the UN warned of widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities targeting independent journalists.
