In 2024, a court issued her a one-year sentence for “spreading false news” and running a website without a licence – which she had repeatedly sought to obtain – after trying her in absentia, even though she was in the country.
asserted
she → issue → country
Ms Attalah learned of the case only after she was separately tried in October, resulting in a large fine and an order for the closure of the Mada Masr website.
asserted
she → learn → website
She faces retrial later this month.
asserted
She → face → retrial
Meanwhile, the entire newsroom of the fact-checking website Matsadash remain in detention weeks after authorities snatched the six journalists on charges including joining and financing a terrorist group and spreading false news.
asserted
authorities → remain → news
Their lawyers say that they have been tortured and forced to record fabricated confessions.
asserted
they → say → confessions
On Monday, Russia finally succeeded in silencing the famed Novaya Gazeta, which had spent decades battling growing repression.
asserted
which → succeed → repression
Six of its journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya, paid for their coverage with their lives.
asserted
Six → include → lives
But the newspaper continued until, stripped of its newsroom, donation platforms and right to publish, it was forced to turn the lights off.
asserted
it → continue → lights
(The separate Novaya Gazeta Europe, founded by many of its alumni, continues.)
asserted
Europe → found → alumni
Press freedom is at its lowest ebb for a quarter of a century, Reporters Without Borders said this spring, judging more than half of the 180 countries it surveys to have “difficult” or “very serious” conditions for journalists.
asserted
it → say → journalists
The rising tide of war worldwide is also increasing the pressures and dangers: the Committee to Protect Journalists recorded a new peak of 129 deaths of reporters and other media workers in 2025.
asserted
Committee → rise → 2025
Unesco said last week that almost nine out of 10 killings of journalists go unpunished.
asserted
killings → say → journalists
High-quality journalism has never been more necessary in a world of rising conflict, AI slop and malicious fabrications spreading on platforms run by big tech firms who barely nod to ethical responsibilities.
asserted
who → rise → responsibilities
As Ms Attalah herself has pointed out, the disappearance of professional media organisations enlarges the space for conspiracies and disinformation.
asserted
disappearance → point → conspiracies
Yet while the US previously pressed the case of threatened journalists overseas, sometimes helping to ease their conditions, it is now led by a man who has called news media “the enemy of the American people”, whose FBI raided a correspondent’s home in January, and who is currently pursuing a $10bn lawsuit against the BBC.
asserted
who → press → BBC
Donald Trump has also sought to dismantle federally funded organisations which were an important source of independent reporting on many repressive nations.
asserted
which → seek → nations
This week, an appeals court panel ruled that the administration had illegally fired the head of Voice of America.
asserted
administration → rule → America
VoA, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe have all struggled on thanks to dedicated staff, though hugely diminished.
asserted
VoA → struggle → staff
Recent elections in Serbia, Brazil and the US are evidence that journalism, alongside activism, can stem the erosion of democracy.
asserted
journalism → stem → democracy
Thousands of people protested in Turkey last month against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s media crackdown.
asserted
Thousands → protest → crackdown
Large parts of the public still want the truth and, against the odds, courageous journalists worldwide persist in finding it out and sharing it.
asserted
journalists → want → it
That authoritarians target them so relentlessly only testifies to their importance.
asserted
target → target → importance
The Aporia
