Incident
Egypt: a license requirement leaves an independent news site unable to operate legally for years
Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation required news websites to obtain a government license to operate, and independent outlet Al-Manassa's application, filed in 2018, went unanswered for more than two years.123
What happened
Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), founded in 2018 to oversee print, broadcast and online media, required news websites operating in the country to obtain a license from it before they could publish legally. Al-Manassa, an independent Egyptian news site founded in 2016, submitted its license application in October 2018 when the council called for websites to register, but had received no response as of an October 2020 interview with its editor, Nora Younis, meaning the outlet had operated for two years under an unresolved licensing requirement with no legal certainty about its status. Younis also said Egypt's cybercrime law separately made it a criminal offense to use certain open-source software tools without the council's permission if doing so could be characterized as committing a crime, a provision she said gave authorities broad discretion over online publishers' technical operations as well as their editorial content.123
As of the October 2020 interview, Al-Manassa's 2018 application remained unanswered.123
What reason was given
Stated justificationNot stated in the sources reviewed; the Supreme Council for Media Regulation did not respond to Al-Manassa's 2018 license application or explain the delay.123
What changed for reporting
An independent news site operated for more than two years without a resolved license, unable to obtain the legal certainty the licensing system was meant to provide, under a regulator that could also treat unlicensed software use as a crime.12
Timeline
2018
Who acted
| Name | Role in this incident | Office at the time |
|---|---|---|
| Abdel Fattah el-Sisi | other | President of Egypt |
Outlets and journalists
| Name | Kind | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| Al-Manassa | outlet | affected |
| Nora Younis | journalist, Al-Manassa | affected |
Sources
- Al-Manassa editor Nora Younis on censorship in Egypt
- Egypt arrests another journalist as attacks on independent media continue
Claims and evidence
Each numbered claim quotes the source it rests on.
- Al-Manassa's October 2018 license application had received no response as of the October 2020 interview.
Al-Manassa submitted its timely application in October 2018, and have never received a response to this day.
Al-Manassa editor Nora Younis on censorship in Egypt, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2020-10-26.Claim 521, checked 2026-09-22. - Egypt's cybercrime law makes it illegal to use certain open-source software without the council's permission if it could be characterized as committing a crime.
It is illegal under cybercrime law to use, without SCMR permission, open source software to commit 'a crime.'
Al-Manassa editor Nora Younis on censorship in Egypt, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2020-10-26.Claim 522, checked 2026-09-22. - Egyptian law requires news websites to obtain a license from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, founded in 2018.
Media websites in Egypt are required under this law to obtain a license from the SCMR, which was founded in 2018, while Al-Manassa was founded in 2016.
Al-Manassa editor Nora Younis on censorship in Egypt, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2020-10-26.Claim 587, checked 2026-09-22.