EU Commission Sidesteps Accountability for Egypt’s Media Crackdown

A Cairo court sentenced Attalah on Wednesday, imposing a €48,000 fine and ordering the closure of her independent news outlet over alleged “false news” and operating without a license. This verdict arrives despite Attalah’s repeated, long-standing efforts to secure official registration—applications that have remained unanswered by Egyptian authorities since 2023. Her website has faced state-mandated blocks since 2017, part of a broader crackdown that has seen at least 25 journalists imprisoned in Egypt as of early October.

When pressed on whether this judicial action violates the terms of the €7.4 billion EU-Egypt deal signed in 2024, a commission spokesperson refused to offer substantive comment, opting instead to re-read a generic statement on the importance of independent media. The official eventually walked off the stage, leaving questions about the enforcement of the agreement’s human rights clauses unanswered.

Rights defenders have characterized the Commission’s silence as a failure of its own policy. Claudio Francavilla of Human Rights Watch noted that while the EU agreement requires Cairo to take “concrete and credible steps” toward democratic values, the reality on the ground suggests these conditions are being ignored. “We don’t need the EU to tell us that Egypt jails journalists,” Francavilla said. “We need to know what it’s going to do about it.”