Court blocks appeal in Mada Masr’s battle for legal recognition

Mada Masr once again met a roadblock on Tuesday in its pursuit for legal recognition.

An appeal, which Mada Masr Media had lodged to challenge the rejection of its license application, was refused by the Supreme Administrative Court, said lawyer Hassan al-Azhari.

The court’s first circuit issued the decision without disclosing the reasoning behind it, said Azhari, who represents the company.

Mada Masr filed a lawsuit in 2022, suing the state media regulator, the Supreme Media Regulatory Council, for denying its application for a license to operate and seeking compensation for damages caused by the SMRC’s failure to inform the company of its decision.

The administrative court refused the lawsuit earlier this year.

Mada Masr applied for a media license in 2018 and 2020, submitting the necessary documents to the state media regulator on both occasions. It did not receive a response to either of the applications.

Last year, Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah found herself under investigation on charges of managing a website without a license. Throughout the course of the investigation, it transpired that the charges were based on the SMRC’s decision to reject the news outlet’s license application. The court had documentation of the media regulator’s decision, which Mada Masr had never received.