Too often, websites are launched in a blind haze of optimism. They will speak truth unto power. They will bridge increasingly entrenched lines that criss-cross the political landscape. They will be honest, transparent. And too often, after a gallant run, they fail. Owners make their agendas felt and journalists collectively know when and where not to ask the questions they know their readers expect to be answered.

Over some key event, they too fall silent or look the other way. It's only a matter of time before every media outlet discovers its red lines and no-go areas. The Middle East Eye will be different. It serves no political master, movement or country. It has no agenda other than the belief that what happened three years ago in Tunisia and in Egypt was not an abberation. It was not a spring that turned to winter, but the first stirrings of a fundamental change that will affect every country and every people in the Middle East.

Those first gasps for breath as equal citizens have not been extinguished by civil war, counter-revolution, or military coups. The Arab world will not "move on" as Britain, the EU and America so desperately want it to, under a new round of western friendly dictators and oligarchs. A seed has been sown in the minds of millions which will not be so easily trampled on. The Middle East Eye will keep that vision of a democratic future at the core of all it does. It will keep an unremitting eye on dictators, time servers, and all who condone what passes for business as usual in the Middle East. If that is being radical, we are unabashed radicals. Welcome to the Middle East Eye. We will do our best to keep you informed, honestly.