In November 2019, Attalah was briefly detained by Egyptian security services after Mada Masr, of which she is Chief Editor, published an article[6] about plans for president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's son Mahmoud el-Sisi to be transferred from the General Intelligence Directorate (GIS), one of the three Egyptian intelligence services,[7] to the Military Intelligence agency and assigned to a diplomatic position in Moscow in 2020 in response to Mahmoud's media visibility having a negative impact on president el-Sisi's image.[8] Mada Masr member Shady Zalat was detained for a day and a half, laptops and telephones from the Mada Masr office were confiscated, and Mada Masr staff, free lancers and guests were held incommunicado in the office for several hours by security forces.[9][8]