{{Short description, Belgium-based news website 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 Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

. Most of its attention is attributed to the

Vlaams Belang Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...

(formerly called

Vlaams Blok Vlaams Blok (, VB; ) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.Erk, 2005, pp. 493-502. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. The part ...

, hence the name "BlokWatch"). Among other things, the site provides the complete version (in

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

) of the Vlaams Belang party statutes ("Basisbeginselen") and the notorious "70 steps plan". It is an independent volunteer initiative, founded by Marc Spruyt (aka Blokwatcher), author of a number of works on the Vlaams Blok ("Grove Borstels", "Wat het Vlaams Blok verzwijgt") and who is generally considered the expert on the Far Right in Flanders.

History

Blokwatch started around June 6, 2004 (one week before the elections of June 13, 2004) as a weblog. It soon became one of the ten most visited Skynetblogs in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. (Skynet is a local, Belgian blog service.) 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 ("''Baron Jéan de Sélys-Longchamps''", "''antifa''" and "''vlaamsblok.blogspot''") - launched the site as it is now on January 7, 2005.

Protection committee

The site has a protection

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

consisting of: *

Jan Blommaert Jan Blommaert (4 November 1961 – 7 January 2021) was a Belgian sociolinguist and linguistic anthropologist, Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of the Babylon Center at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He also h ...

(professor African languages and cultures

University of Ghent Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

, study group Language, Power and Identity Wetenschappelijke Onderzoeksgemeenschap Vlaanderen) * Ronald Commers (professor Philosophy and Moral sciences

, director Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry) * Dirk Jacobs (professor Groupe d'études sur l'Ethnicité, le Racisme, les Migrations et l'Exclusion (GERME), Sociological Institute, ULB) * Liga voor de Mensenrechten ( League of Human Rights) * Rik Pinxten (professor Comparative Sciences

, president Humanistisch Verbond) * Pieter Saey (professor Geography

, Study group World-System analysis) * Sami Zemni (professor study of the third world

, president Centre for Islam in Europe)

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 The Parliament of the French Community ( ; PCF) is the legislative assembly of the French Community of Belgium, based in the Royal Quarter of Brussels. It consists of all 75 members of the Walloon Parliament except German-speaking members (curren ...

of Belgium. It was awarded by the "Centre de Recherche et d’Etudes Politiques" (CREP), a pluralistic and independent

foundation Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

because of the receiver's engagement for democracy.

External links

The Blokwatch site
Belgian news websites Communications in Belgium Islam in Belgium

History

Protection committee

Awards

See also

External links