In Egypt, digital media officials denounce the cost and duration of licensing procedures. Meeting on 7 November at the journalists’ union, they described requests that had not been decided after the payment of fees and the preparation of their files. The Supreme Council for Media Regulation responded that pending applications must meet legal, procedural or financial requirements.
The meeting of the Freedom Committee, in the presence of the president of the Khaled al-Balchi trade union and its head Iman Aouf, revealed a common difficulty with different editorial projects. According to the testimonies reported, uncertainty affects not only opposition sites, but also specialized publications or publications close to the authorities.
Payment does not end waiting
The representative of a site dedicated to the economy, employing about 20 union journalists, said that he had contributed 50,000 Egyptian pounds on 29 October 2018 and attached the requested documents. He claims he did not get an answer. This chronology is the one presented by the applicant, not the result of an adversarial examination of his administrative file.
The founder of another site explained that he had filed his application and paid the fees in September 2024. According to him, the team had about 21 journalists and correspondents. He said that he had increased the capital of the company from £10,000 to £10,000 at the request of the authorities, without the procedure being completed at the date of the meeting.
This manager attributes to waiting a reduction in activity and increased use of social networks. His testimony illustrates a cost that exceeds the license fee alone: the founders must form a company, mobilize capital and organize an editorial while the conditions for the continuation of the project remain uncertain.
Digital media licenses have a legal framework
Article 60 of Law 180 of 2018 provides that the Council shall act within 90 days of the date on which the application is complete. It sets a limit of £50,000 for costs related to an electronic site. The starting point for the deadline is therefore essential: it does not necessarily confuse itself with a first deposit or payment.
At the meeting, journalist Amr Badr challenged the application of this ceiling as a lump sum. He also called for clarification of the deadlines and the regime applicable to press projects. The costs are added, he stressed, to those of the commercial register, tax formalities and legal and accounting support.
The law distinguishes several categories and procedures. Sections 6 and 59 expressly require a licence for electronic sites. It would therefore be incorrect to present any prior authorisation as an invention of the only implementing regulation. The trade union debate also concerns the interpretation and implementation of this framework.
Regulator invokes files to be completed
In a statement dated 7 November on its official website, the Conseil Supérieur, chaired by Khaled Abdel Aziz, states that it has granted licences to structures meeting the requirements. It links refusals or further examination to compliance with the requirements laid down in the texts.
The Commission presents unregulated cases as a limited proportion in the face of a large majority of authorized sites. He indicated that his commissions were continuing to review cases to expedite decisions and was available to provide procedural and legal support. The press release does not provide a quantified balance sheet to measure these proportions.
Khaled al-Balchi said he had information on 95 sites. This number does not constitute a national total of the media without a licence or a count of all outstanding requests.
The union now wants to document cases and obtain more legible decision and appeal procedures. For the editors concerned, the immediate issue is concrete: knowing the missing documents, the review schedule and the reasons for a decision, so that they can organise their activity and the jobs that depend on it.
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