Lina Attalah, an Egyptian journalist, born in 1983, has made her life's motive to take the real stories of Egypt to its citizens and around the world.
Her work has been published in the Cairo Times, Al-Masry, The Daily Star, Al Youm, Christian Science Monitor and on the Thomson Reuters news agency. She has worked as a radio producer and campaign coordinator for BBC World Service Trust in 2005. She was the managing editor of the Egypt Independent prior to the closure of its print edition in 2013. She is the co-founder and the First Chief Editor of MADA MASR, an independent online Egyptian newspaper.
Attalah's journalism has covered notable events in the Egyptian world including the 2011 Egyptian revolution due to which she was attacked by the security forces along with her colleagues. In November 2019, Attalah was briefly detained by Egyptian security after Mada Maar published an article which portrayed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in a negative light. The members of MADA MASR were restrained for a day and a half, laptops and telephones were confiscated while the freelancers and guests at the newspaper office were held incommunicado. On May 18, 2020, she was arrested while interviewing the sister of a detained journalist. She was released on bail, several hours after getting arrested.
Lina knows how to communicate and put her opinions out in the world. Her strong voice was recognised by UNESCO when they invited her to address UNESCO'S World Press Freedom Day. She is always active on social media platforms and has a huge fan following. She was awarded the 2020 KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD from the International Centre for Journalists. She was also recognised as one of the TIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE of 2020.
Bearing the constant threats from politicians and celebrities and still speaking her minds is what sets Lina apart.
On July 5, the Egyptian parliament passed the law granting the government broader powers to restrict freedom of expression, violate citizens’ privacy, and jail online activists for peaceful speech. In late July, a new law was passed, the Media Regulation Law, which further restricts journalistic freedoms, allows censorship without judicial orders, and levies severe monetary fines for violating the law’s articles, in addition to prison sentences for cases related to “inciting violence.”
As Attalah told the Century Foundation in a paper on ‘Innovative Arab Media and the New Outlines of Citizenship’: “Trying to work in free and critical media in Egypt in the last few years has at times been a lonely endeavour. Even at its best moments, reporting and writing for Mada Masr… can feel like fighting a flood with a bucket, or shouting into the wind. All around there is a rising tide of authoritarianism.”
Featured image: Time Magazine
By Priyanka Sharma
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