Middle East Eye

Middle East Eye
Founded February 2014
Location London, United Kingdom
Website http://www.middleeasteye.net/

Middle East Eye (MEE) is an online news portal covering events in the Middle East. According to its official website, MEE is an "independently funded online news organization that was founded in February 2014". It aims to be the primary portal of Middle East news, and describes its target audience as "all those communities of readers living in and around the region that care deeply for its fate".[1]

Organization

MEE is edited by David Hearst, the former chief foreign leader writer for the British daily The Guardian.[2] MEE is wholly owned by Middle East Eye Ltd, a UK company that was incorporated in October 2015 which claims to employ about 20 full-time staff in its London offices. It also claims to have a network of freelance journalists. The sole director of Middle East Eye Ltd is Jamal Bessasso (whose surname is alternatively spelled Bassasso), a former director of planning and human resources at Al Jazeera.

Controversies

Additionally, according to The Guardian, MEE has been noted by Saudi Arabia as a news outlet funded by Qatar (both directly and indirectly);[3] the Qatari government is regarded as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. On 22 June 2017, during the 2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Bahrain, as part of a list of 13 demands, demanded that Qatar close Middle East Eye, which they saw as sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. Middle East Eye denied it has ever received Qatari funds.[4][5]

Despite Hearst's denial of affiliation between MEE and any governments or organizations, Middle East Eye is associated, according to the Emirati newspaper The National, with several members of the Muslim Brotherhood.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ About Middle East Eye Middle East Eye. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  2. ↑ David Hearst. Articles. Middle East Eye. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Qatar given 10 days to meet 13 sweeping demands by Saudi Arabia The Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  4. ↑ What's the Problem With Al Jazeera?, The Atlantic, 24 June 2017
  5. ↑ Al Jazeera: 'Business as normal' despite Gulf Crisis, Al-Jazeera, 18 July 2017
  6. ↑ "Muslim Brotherhood, its UK connections and media attacks on the UAE". The National. June 19, 2014.
  7. ↑ Langton, James (June 26, 2014). "Al Jazeera executive helped to launch controversial UK website". The National.
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