In April 2014, a news organization emerged from London with a single director and no public owner, immediately casting a long shadow over its credibility. Middle East Eye began as a project that quietly gathered former Al Jazeera journalists and a consultant named Jonathan Powell, who registered the domain names before the public ever saw a headline. The man at the center of this operation was Jamal Bessasso, a Kuwait-born Palestinian who listed his nationality as Dutch at Companies House and held more than 75% of the shares and voting rights in the parent company, M.E.E. Limited. Despite Bessasso's significant control, editor-in-chief David Hearst, a former foreign lead writer for The Guardian, refused to name the true owner, stating only that the organization was formally owned by a limited company with a single director. This secrecy became the defining feature of the outlet, as critics and governments alike suspected a hidden hand pulling the strings, with many alleging that the government of Qatar was the true financier behind the operation. The organization employed about 20 full-time staff in London as of 2017, yet its financial structure remained a puzzle that fueled decades of speculation and diplomatic tension.
The Diplomatic Siege
The silence surrounding Middle East Eye's funding was shattered in 2017 when four Arab nations, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain, issued a list of 13 demands that included the closure of the website. These governments viewed the outlet as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood and a Qatari-funded entity, a perception that led to a diplomatic crisis on the 22nd of June 2017. Middle East Eye denied receiving funds from Qatar, with editor David Hearst stating that the demand was an attempt to extinguish any free voice that dared to question what those governments were doing. The outlet had published reports critical of Qatari authorities, including coverage of how workers from the subcontinent were treated on building projects for the 2022 World Cup, which only deepened the suspicion of its critics. The organization faced a blockade in the United Arab Emirates on the 29th of June 2016, when the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority blocked the website nationwide after MEE published reports on the UAE's role in the Yemen war and human-rights issues. Egypt followed suit in 2019, blocking the website after protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Jordan's Media Commission barred access in May 2025 following an investigation into high fees charged to NGOs sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. These bans were condemned by media organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists as threats to independent journalism, yet the silence from the embassies regarding the blocks remained absolute.The Leaked Truth