Blokwatch


Blokwatch is the name of a Belgian newssite, a virtual archive and documentation centre, and meeting point for research on and about the far right in Flanders. Most of its attention is attributed to the Vlaams Belang. Among other things, the site provides the complete version of the Vlaams Belang party statutes and the notorious "70 steps plan".
It is an independent volunteer initiative, founded by Marc Spruyt, author of a number of works on the Vlaams Blok and who is generally considered the expert on the Far Right in Flanders.

History

Blokwatch started around June 6, 2004 as a weblog. It soon became one of the ten most visited Skynetblogs in Belgium.
Early October 2004 an appeal was launched for new cooperators. Eventually, a team of 12 people was assembled that - after consolidating the Blokwatch web log with 3 other web logs - launched the site as it is now on January 7, 2005.

Protection committee

The site has a protection committee consisting of:

Awards

  • Democracy Award 2005
  • : Blokwatch ended third, and received this citation form the organisations "vzw Trefpunt" and "Democratie 2000" that presented the award on July 21, 2005 : "Blokwatch is today the most important source of information on the anti-democratic operation of the far right, especially since a number of quality newspapers have given up their research journalism in this domain."
  • Le Prix Raymond Aron pour la démocratie
  • : Blokwatch received this prize on August 26, 2005 in the Parliament of the French Community of Belgium. It was awarded by the "Centre de Recherche et d’Etudes Politiques", a pluralistic and independent foundation because of the receiver's engagement for democracy.