Middle East Eye

Middle East Eye (MEE) is a London-based online news outlet covering events in the Middle East and North Africa. MEE describes itself as an "independently funded online news organization that was founded in April 2014". It seeks 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".
Organisation.
MEE is edited by David Hearst, a former chief foreign leader writer for the British daily, "The Guardian". MEE is owned by Middle East Eye Ltd, a UK company incorporated in 2013. According to the news editor, Dania Akkad, most of the content is written by freelancers that approach Middle East Eye. MEE favour articles that highlight local people and local stories.
It employs about 20 full-time staff in its London office. The 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.
Coverage.
Middle East Eye covers a range of topics across the Middle East. According to its website, it reports on events in 22 different countries. Content is separated into different categories on its website including news, opinion and essays.
Since the foundation of the media outlet, it has provided exclusives on a number of major events in the Middle East, which have often been picked up by other media outlets globally. This included providing details from leaked emails of Mohammed bin Salman and US officials contained in leaked email between Yousef Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador in Washington D.C. and Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel. This revelation on 14 August 2017, led to other media outlets to print other material from the leaked emails.
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official now working for the think tank American Enterprise Institute, believed that MEE and its chief editor David Hearst had exclusive access to Hamas news content in their articles. According to Rubin, the Middle East Eye website was registered by a former employee of Interpal, which is a United Kingdom-based charity designated by the US Treasury Department as a financial supporter of Hamas. He further claimed that Hearst had penned editorials praising and defending the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Samuel Tadros of the conservative American think tank, the Hudson Institute, MEE and Middle East Monitor were launched by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as an alternative to the Qatari-based Al Jazeera to provide western readers with the Muslim Brotherhood point of view.
The Emirati newspaper "The National," claimed Middle East Eye coverage to have an anti-Emirati bias and noted several members employed by MEE to be originally part of Al Jazeera. "The National" also accused MEE of being associated with multiple members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On July 29, 2016, MEE published a story alleging that the UAE government, aided by Palestinian exile Mohammed Dahlan, had funnelled significant sums of money to Turkish coup conspirators. The article also stated that as a result of the failed coup, Dahlan had been exiled from the UAE, where he had become a top political operative.
In 2017, Dahlan brought a case against MEE in a London court disputing that the article was libellous and caused damages costing him up to £250,000. MEE's defence through their lawyers Carter-Ruck was that the article was in the public interest and based on “trusted and credible” sources. A trial was set to begin in November 2019 when Dahlan abandoned the claim against MEE hours before the deadline to submit relevant documents to the court. In a statement, Dahlan said he is focusing his legal proceedings against Facebook in Dublin courts. By dropping the claim, Dahlan has to pay all legal costs, which is estimated to be more than £500,000.
In November 2019, the Turkish government officially accused Dahlan of involvement in the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt and is offering $700,000 for information leading to his capture.
Notable contributors.
Jamal Khashoggi.
Jamal Khashoggi wrote for MEE prior to joining "The Washington Post".
According to a post on the MEE website, Khashoggi wrote for them over a period of two years. According to MEE, his op-eds were not credited to him at the time due to concerns for his safety because many of his articles for MEE are critical of Saudi Arabia and its policies, and Saudi Arabia's rift with Qatar. Khashoggi, a "Washington Post" columnist, was assassinated when he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey on 2 October 2018. After initial denials, Saudi Arabia stated that he was killed by rogue assassins inside the consulate building with "premeditated intention".
Middle East tensions.
Blocking.
In 2016, the United Arab Emirates blocked the Middle East Eye in what was a countrywide ban. MEE says it contacted the UAE embassy in London for an explanation, but never received a response. Saudi Arabia also blocked the website across the country in May 2017. Following protests against the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in September and October 2019, Egypt also blocked the website.
2017–2018 Qatar diplomatic crisis.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain ended their diplomatic relationships with Qatar, followed by a list of 13 demands to restore diplomatic relations. MEE was mentioned in one of the demands to be shut down by Qatar even though the news organisation denies receiving funds from them stating that 'the demand as an attempt to "extinguish any free voice which dares to question what they are doing."' In a statement responding to the demand, the publication's editor-in-chief said "MEE covers the area without fear or favour, and we have carried reports critical of the Qatari authorities, for instance how workers from the subcontinent are treated on building projects for the 2022 World Cup."