// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Egyptian journalist's retrial adjourned as UN warns of 'assaults on press freedom'
Lina Attalah has said Egypt is "trying to limit the already-limited space" for independent media
A criminal court in Cairo has postponed the retrial of the prominent Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, whose case has drawn international condemnation.
Wednesday's opening hearing was adjourned until 18 November after defence lawyers representing the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Mada Masr requested a new judge.
The UN has warned of "widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including the targeting, persecution and harassment of independent journalists".
Attalah told the BBC that a recent crackdown was meant to "send a chilling message" to "the very few newsrooms that are left".
She warned: "Everybody should be careful, everybody should be scared, everybody should be wondering if they are next."
Set up 13 years ago, Mada Masr became Egypt's leading independent news site with Attalah as its editor-in-chief and co-founder.
Last month, the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court convicted her of running a website without a licence - which she said she had tried in vain for years to obtain. She was issued a hefty fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds ($56,000; £42,000) and Mada Masr was ordered to shut down.
After that trial, Attalah found that a court had previously given her a one-year prison sentence, without her knowledge, for "spreading false news" - a charge often used against journalists and dissidents - as well as operating a website without a licence. It was issued in absentia in 2024, even though she was in the country at the time. Attalah is now being retried in that case by the same judge.
At the opening session, Attalah's defence team requested the judge's recusal, arguing that he had "already formed a conviction in mind against the defendant", Mada Masr cited its lawyer Hassan al-Azhar as saying, external. The judge went into recess before adjourning proceedings for a week to allow the court to consider the defence's request, he added.