Egyptian news website Aswat Masriya to close due to funding lack: statement

The Egyptian news website Aswat Masriya, run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, will close at the end of March due to lack of funding, a statement from the foundation said.

The website is set to be closed down on 31 March “due to the lack of continued finances”, the foundation announced on Saturday in an official statement.

Throughout the past months, the foundation has been looking for sources of funding to keep the Egyptian website alive.

“Extensive efforts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to find a sustainable source of financing for the platform in Egypt have unfortunately not been successful.

Since its launch following the 2011 revolution, Aswat Masriya’s team of Egyptian journalists produced over 80,000 text and multimedia stories, according to the statement.

The website’s content was made free for republication, and the site’s articles were featured in prominent outlets such as local daily Al-Shorouk.

Ahram Online has also published Aswat Masriya content.

“I am extremely proud to have helped launch Aswat Masriya and of what the team of journalists has achieved over the years. I am particularly proud of how the platform has evolved. It has transformed the local media landscape and has created a legacy in Egypt,” the CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Monique Villa, said.

Villa added that the foundation was currently doing “all we can to explore options for keeping the content of the website available to the general public and I am confident this will happen.”

Source: Ahram online