World · Africa · 10 outlets (L 3 · C 1 · R 2 · 4 not rated)
Egypt court orders independent news site Mada Masr closed
An Egyptian court ordered the closure of Mada Masr, one of the country's last independent news outlets, after convicting its editor-in-chief Lina Attalah of operating a website without a license.[4, 5, 6 +1] The court fined Attalah 3 million Egyptian pounds, according to IJR; Democracy Now! reported a fine of over $50,000 and Al Jazeera reported $53,400.[1, 5, 7] IJR reported she was detained pending payment; Al Jazeera reported she was freed once the fine was paid.[5, 7]
Al Jazeera reported that after her release Attalah learned of a one-year sentence passed in her absence.[7] Amnesty International called the verdict "a crushing blow to press freedom", and press freedom groups raised due-process concerns.[5, 8] Egyptian authorities say media must comply with the law and respect national security.[5]
Covered by The New York Times, ABC News, The Washington Times and 7 more
Read first Court orders closure of one of Egypt's last independent media outlets, detains and fines editor
How balanced is this coverage?
Of the 6 rated outlets that covered it, 3 are left of center (2 of them in the Left group), 1 is center and 2 are right of center (2 of them in the Right group). 4 more are not rated.
Too few left- or right-leaning outlets to compare: 3 of 42 left-leaning, 1 of 33 center and 2 of 38 right-leaning outlets covered it.
- Left: Democracy Now! (−2.47), Truthout (−2.23).
- Leans left: The New York Times (−0.70).
- Center: ABC News (−0.19).
- Leans right: none.
- Right: The Washington Times (+1.27), IJR (+1.52).
Not rated Al Jazeera, BBC News, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times. Not placed: they have no lean score.
Each dot is an outlet that covered it, placed by its audience-lean score (Eady et al. 2025), which measures who shares its links, not how accurate it is. The ticks under the line are all 113 rated outlets Tare reads.