Mada Masr crackdown continues: public prosecution to interrogate editor-in-chief Lina Attalah, three journalists

The Cairo prosecution summoned Mada Masr's editor-in-chief and award-winning journalist Lina Attalah with three other reporters for interrogation on Wednesday to investigate complaints filed by a high-profile political party loyal to the Sisi regime over a news story on suspected corruption there, the independent news outlet said in a statement. 

"Mada Masr's defence team said the four journalists will attend the summons to answer [the required] questions while also adhering to the legal guarantees that safeguard their journalistic practice," the statement added.

In the news report, Mada Masr reported on 31 August that accusations of corruption against several senior members of Mostsaqbal Watan (the Nation's Future) party leaders were investigated by official oversight bodies, leading to a decision to expel them from the political scene.

As a result, several MPs affiliated with the party filed dozens of complaints across Egypt against the three female reporters: Rana Mamdouh, Sara Seif Eddin and Beesan Kassab, as well as the outlet's CEO.

The journalists have been accused of allegedly "spreading false news", among other charges, the same set of charges facing over 60 journalists currently behind bars in Egypt.

The Mada Masr lawyers had earlier petitioned the public prosecution to merge the complaints into one case.

On Tuesday, Mada Masr submitted a memorandum to press syndicate head Diaa Rashwan and the syndicate's board requesting that a board representative be present during the interrogation and that the union's legal team follow up on the matter.

"The memorandum also asserted that the party’s aim in submitting complaints in various [provinces] was to fragment the efforts of the defendants' defence and to cause them to miss scheduled appearances before [different] investigating bodies," the statement read.

"Such an aim would amount to an abuse of the right to litigation on the part of the MPs within the parliamentary majority," the outlet added.

A Mada Masr journalist, whose name was not specified by the outlet, had been summoned over the weekend for interrogation before Luxor prosecution in southern Egypt on Monday.

No further details were immediately available on the outcome of the interrogation conducted in Luxor.

The state of the media and journalism in Egypt deteriorated sharply after then-defence minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, overthrew the country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, on 3 July 2013.

Over 500 local and international websites of organisations and news outlets, including Mada Masr, The New Arab and Human Rights Watch, have been banned in the country. 

In 2021, Egypt has been ranked the world's third-worst jailer of journalists by the Committee to Protect Journalists.