In Egypt, news websites wait years for licenses. Then come the prosecutions
For years, independent news organizations in Egypt have faced a regulatory impasse: They have applied for licenses, submitted every required document and paid every fee, only to hear nothing back from the authorities. Now some face criminal prosecution for lacking the very licenses they have spent those years trying to obtain.
The case of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s best-known independent news outlets, has drawn fresh attention to the problem and prompted legal and union efforts to settle the status of websites left in limbo and to challenge prosecutions for operating without a license.
Mada Masr first applied in 2018 under the Press and Media Regulation Law, No. 180 of the same year, filing with the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), and received no response. The outlet submitted a second application in 2020, after the law’s executive regulations were issued, but again heard nothing.
Yet on Tuesday, Oct. 27, the Ninth Circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court fined Attalah 3 million Egyptian pounds, about $54,000, and ordered her detained until the fine was paid. The court also ordered Mada Masr closed and its equipment and devices confiscated.
The case, No. 11743 of 2026, concerned accusations of “establishing and operating a website without a license.” It leaves news organizations criminally liable for lacking licenses that the responsible authorities have left unresolved for years.
Mada Masr is not alone
Mada Masr is not the only independent outlet caught in this predicament. Al Manassa and Fakar Tany have also struggled to obtain definitive decisions on their licensing applications, despite repeated efforts to comply with regulatory requirements.
In June 2020, security forces raided Al Manassa’s offices and arrested its editor-in-chief, Nora Younis. She was held for two nights at Maadi Police Station and questioned by prosecutors on charges of operating a website without a license. She was released on bail of 10,000 pounds.
The outlet had applied for a license in October 2018, when the SCMR was established and assigned responsibility for licensing news websites. It paid the required fees and received no response.
In August 2020, when the council asked websites that had already applied to resubmit on updated forms issued under the law’s executive regulations, Al Manassa complied. It is still waiting for a definitive answer.
Fakar Tany has faced a similar experience.
Mohamed Salah, chairman of the company that operates the website, said it was established in March 2023 and applied for a license four months later, paying the application fees. The council initially promised to review the application and decide as soon as possible, but no decision came for more than a year.
In September 2024, the company received a letter rejecting the application, citing insufficient clarity in three policies covering financing, publishing and insurance.
“The company had repeatedly contacted the council during the intervening period but received no formal response,” Salah told Al Manassa. “After receiving the rejection, the company then contacted the SCMR and explained that the application form did not provide sufficient space to include all the requested details.”
In October 2024, the two sides agreed that the company would submit a petition explaining the three policies in greater detail. Two months later, the council invited company representatives to meet one of its officials. “We discussed the petition and argued that the application documents and procedures were complete, and that insufficient detail in the policies did not, in itself, constitute a valid reason to reject the application,” Salah said.
The meeting settled nothing, and the company has heard nothing since, Salah said, despite contacting the council periodically.
For nearly two years, the company refrained from taking legal action, hoping instead to resolve the matter through dialogue. It also submitted a memorandum to the Journalists Syndicate asking it to intervene over the prolonged delay.
“Following the ruling against Attalah, the company is now preparing a memorandum to initiate legal proceedings to settle the website’s status,” Salah said.
The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) has also taken up the issue. At its monthly meeting on Wednesday, the council discussed the situation of news websites seeking to regularize their legal status, according to a statement posted on its Facebook page.
It said it would continue consultations with official bodies, including the SCMR and the Journalists Syndicate, to explore ways of addressing the problem.
A constitutional dispute
The conflict reaches past administrative delay. Journalists and rights advocates argue that parts of the Press and Media Regulation Law violate constitutional guarantees of press freedom, particularly the right to establish and publish newspapers without restrictions or prior administrative approval.
Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez, deputy head of the Journalists Syndicate, said the law contradicts the Constitution, which guarantees the right to publish newspapers upon notifying the administrative authorities, with no prior license required. In a Facebook post, he cited an earlier Supreme Constitutional Court ruling that found unconstitutional restrictions or conditions requiring administrative authorization to publish after notification.
The Journalists Syndicate has also challenged the way the licensing process is administered.
On Tuesday, its president, Khaled Elbalshy, submitted a memorandum to the SCMR outlining what he described as procedural violations in the handling of applications.
Under the law’s executive regulations and the council’s licensing rules, applicants must be notified when their submissions are missing information so that they can complete the documents. The council must also approve or reject applications within 90 days and inform applicants of its decision by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt.
Elbalshy said that failing to respond to applications, or to notify applicants formally of decisions, is a procedural violation that infringes on their rights. “Disputes over licenses,” he argued, “should be resolved through established legal procedures rather than criminal prosecution.”
After the ruling against Attalah, Elbalshy issued a further statement calling for transparent and fair licensing rules, an opportunity for news organizations to complete their applications, an end to licensing-related prosecutions, the lifting of website blocks and requirements better suited to digital media. He also called for institutional dialogue between the council and the syndicate.
Selective licensing
Questions about how the licensing system treats different news organizations have sharpened the dispute over the absence of timely decisions.
The SCMR has not published official statistics on the number of websites and applications it has licensed since the law took effect in 2018. A review of information on the council’s website, however, shows that 76 websites and 11 applications received new licenses between June 2019 and October 2026. Another 100 websites already operating in 2022 regularized their status, and three more did so this month, bringing the total to 190 websites over seven years.
Independent outlets say their applications have remained unresolved for years, while some news websites and platforms perceived as aligned with the authorities have secured licenses within months of launching and applying.
Yehia Qallash, a former president of the Journalists Syndicate, described the licensing process as increasingly “selective.”
“Institutions established to protect press freedom and independence have instead become oversight bodies and instruments in the hands of the executive branch,” he told Al Manassa.
Qallash said licenses to establish newspapers and websites were considerably easier to obtain before the 2018 law, during what was then known as the “democracy of the margins.” The essential test of press freedom, he argued, is the freedom to publish. He described restrictions on that freedom as “an assault on a Constitution whose provisions we must seek to implement without stripping it of its spirit.”
Mohamed El-Garhy, a member of the Journalists Syndicate’s board, said the prolonged suspension of licensing applications leaves news organizations exposed to “legal danger.”
“The problem”, he told Al Manassa, “is not simply the time it takes to issue licenses. It is the apparent pattern in which some websites remain in regulatory limbo despite submitting the required documents and completing the necessary procedures, while other, commercially oriented websites obtain authorization with relative ease.”
The council, however, has defended its procedures.
Abdel Mohsen Salama, an SCMR member and former president of the Journalists Syndicate, said the council had published the rules and standards governing applications on its official website. “A specialized technical committee reviews submissions, verifies that they meet the requirements and prepares reports for the council before a final decision is made,” he told Al Manassa.
Salama said he supported freedom of opinion and expression and would raise with the council the need to expedite decisions on pending applications.
For the independent outlets still waiting, an unresolved application means working under the threat of prosecution, even after years of trying to comply with the law.
Journalists, union representatives and rights advocates have repeatedly called on the council to address the backlog. Whether those appeals will bring decisions on pending applications, or prevent further criminal cases against editors and publishers, remains uncertain.