Centre-left estimate · not a score

Middle East Eye

🇬🇧UK · digital · independent · middleeasteye.net

Spectrum	Left Centre-left Centre Centre-right Right State / loyalist An estimate, not a score.
Founded	2014-04 no source on file — the date is not confirmed by us
Headquarters	London, UK no source on file
Funding	Legally a UK-registered private company (M.E.E Limited, company no. 08803692, incorporated 5 Dec 2013; a related company, Middle East Eye Limited, no. 09814915, is dormant). Companies House records one person with significant control, Jamal Awn Jamal Bessasso, holding 75% or more of shares and voting rights and the right to appoint/remove directors. The outlet's own About page describes it as "independently funded" and publishes no breakdown of funders. Separately, a funding link to the government of Qatar has been alleged by some commentators; Middle East Eye and editor-in-chief David Hearst have denied this and not disclosed alternative funding sources (per Wikipedia, which records the claim as disputed by the outlet). No state ownership or state funding was independently confirmed.
In its own words	describes itself as an "independently funded digital news organisation" covering the Middle East and North Africa
Identity	Wikipedia

Bias we have measured in their reporting

How hard the claim is stated

Its own body says the investigators did not attribute the network to the Emirati state — the qualification its headline drops. — in 1 article

How hard the claim is stated

The body withdraws in one line the attribution its own headline makes — in 1 article

How deeply it is sourced

Cites its own past reporting as the evidence for the claim in its own headline, and calls the evidence widespread in its own voice — in 1 article

How deeply it is sourced

Offers its own past reporting as the evidence supporting the claim in its headline, inside the same sentence that carries the denial. — in 1 article

From 125 articles we hold, with the quote behind every tag.

Claims we checked that rest on their reporting: 1 disputed2 unverified1 true
A verdict is on the sentence we checked, not on the outlet. An outlet that files a lot is checked a lot.

Ownership

Holder	Type	Stake	Control	Instrument	Since	Source
Jamal Awn Jamal Bessasso ⚠ contested	person	75%	yes	equity	—	link
Government of Qatar (alleged funder, disputed) ⚠ contested	state body	not disclosed	—	state funding	—	link

Percentages appear only where a source states them. "Not disclosed" means nobody published a number, not that we did not look.

Editorial control

David Hearst

Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief

Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye; formerly the Guardian's foreign leader writer and a correspondent in Russia, Europe and Belfast, having joined from The Scotsman where he was education correspondent.

Journalists

Dania Akkad

Senior Investigations Editor · women's rights · human rights · energy · technology

Senior investigations editor at Middle East Eye covering issues facing women, human rights, energy and technology; won the Best Feature prize at the 2022 Write To End Violence Against Women Awards for reporting on Qatari guardianship laws.

Shafik Mandhai

Journalist and Editor, Discover section · culture · lifestyle

Journalist and editor working on Middle East Eye's Discover section; previously worked for TRT World, Al Jazeera and ITV.

Alex MacDonald

Reporter · Iraq · Turkey · Qatar · Bosnia

Reporter at Middle East Eye who has reported from Iraq, Turkey, Qatar and Bosnia on social and ideological conflicts in the region.

Areeb Ullah

Journalist · migrant workers · Gulf · Syria · counter-terrorism policy · social movements

Journalist at Middle East Eye focusing on migrant workers in the Gulf, Syria, counter-terrorism policy and social movements across the Middle East and North Africa.

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