Statewatch
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Statewatch
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Statewatch
is a non-profit-making voluntary group founded in 1991. It is
comprised of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and
community activists. Its European network of contributors is
drawn from 18 countries. Statewatch encourages the publication
of investigative journalism and critical research in Europe the
fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties,
accountability and openness. Brochure on Statewatch's
work
One of Statewatch's
primary purposes is to provide a service for civil society to
encourage informed discussion and debate - through the provision
of news, features and analyses backed up by full-text documentation
so that people can access for themselves primary sources and
come to their own conclusions.
Statewatch's
services are very widely used:
- the Statewatch
website has over 100,000 unique visitors each month
- during 2009 the average number of downloads of pdf files
from our site was 225,358 per month
- 8,907 people are signed up to the Statewatch e-mail list
- the searchable Statewatch database contains over 25,000
stories, analyses and documents
"Statewatch
provides a tremendous service rooting out documents which most
of us have no idea how to get hold of!" European Information
Association
"We believe that, in general, Statewatch is a paradigm
of sound scholarship." Foundation
for Critical Thinking
"A systematic job of researching this. It’s the one source you need in Europe. It collects a lot. This is very serious. It’s following the process for several years. So for any journalist training we do, doing FOI issues, that would be the one address to go to and say have a look there." Wilfried Ruetten, Director of the European Journalism Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands on Statewatch's work on FOI in the EU.
"Statewatch
has persistently and systematically over two decades, brought
to public attention (through its exemplary website and thorough
expert opinions, evidence and otherwise) the hidden and barely
visible activities of EU executive power in its various components
and manifestations.Often working behind the scenes, quietly,
with little or no public funding.. individuals, such as Tony
Bunyan, Professor Steve Peers and Dr Ben Hayes and others, have
tirelessly worked to bring information and facts into the public
domain"
Professor Deirdre Curtin in her latest book: "Executive
Powers of the European Union" (Oxford, 2009).
The Statewatch bulletin was launched in 1991
and is now in its 18th year of publication. Coverage includes
news, features and research sources on new measures introduced
by national governments and the EU institutions in Brussels as
well as reporting from the ground on the effect of policies and
state practices in the community: Download a free sample issue of Statewatch
bulletin
In
1997 the Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre
(SEMDOC) was launched. SEMDOC has a unique collection documents
from the Council of the European Union, the European Commission
and the European Parliament on justice and home affairs and civil
liberties. The SEMDOC
website
was launched in 1998 together with the Statewatch European Monitor.
In June 2000
Statewatch
News online
was launched and carries news and features with extensive full-text
background documentation to supplement coverage in the bulletin.
On its website Statewatch has 22 "Observatories" on civil liberties
and openness in the EU on this site, further four "Observatories"
on the SEMDOC site and a free, searchable database which holds
26,000 items including coverage from the bulletin: Search
database.
Together with News online they provide one of the most comprehensive
resources available and are widely accessed right across Europe.
In January
2001 the Statewatch
subscriber website was launched which is accessible through an online
subscription to bulletin subscribers - it carries the current
bulletin in "pdf" format and a database of all coverage
in the bulletin from 1991 to the current issue.
The Statewatch
website was launched in 1999 - this is what our Home Page looked
like in the summer of the year 2000: Statewatch website 2000
Since its launch this website
has had 9,935,874, user sessions and 45,813,421 "hits"
(June 2010)
In the year
2004 there were 625,653 user sessions with 2,791,124 "hits"
In the year 2005 there were 979,772 user sessions with 4,076,016
"hits"
In the year 2006 there were 1,341,158 user sessions with 5,446,221
"hits"
In the year 2007 there were 1,693,941 user sessions with 6,464,960
"hits"
In the year 2008 there were 1,232,435 user sessions with 9,896,072
"hits" **
In the year 2009 there were 1,263,573 user sessions with 7,305,161
"hits"
** Figure inflated by hits for automated mass downloads.
Statewatch
has produced a number of publications on justice and home affairs
in the EU, immigration, Europol, surveillance: Statewatch publications and has two unlimited
access low-cost subscriber websites - SEMDOC and Statewatch online:
Statewatch
subscribers websites
Since 1997
Statewatch has submitted evidence to parliaments and other institutions
on a range of issues: Index of submissions
Statewatch
has received five Awards for its work:
1998 The Campaign for Freedom of Information gave Statewatch an Award for its work on fighting for EU openness (access to documents)
1999 Privacy International gave Statewatch an Award for its work in exposing the EU-FBI telecommunications surveillance plans
2001 The European Information Association gave Statewatch the "Chadwyck-Healey Award for achievement in European Information" for its work on openness and the new code of access to EU documents
2001 European
Voice newpaper, Brussels: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, selected
by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50", one
of the the fifty most influential people in the European Union
over the year for Statewatch's work on access to documents in
the EU
2004 European Voice newspaper, Brussels: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch
editor, selected by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50",
one of the fifty most influential people in the European Union
over the year for Statewatch's work on civil liberties and the
"war on terrorism"
Statewatch networks
with a whole range of other organisations and groups:
and is a member of:
Global
Internet Liberty Campaign
INK, the independent news
association
Freedom
of Information Advocates Network - FOIANet
The International
Civil Liberties Monitoring Group - see Report
Statewatch is represented on:
The European Network on Peace and Human
Rights
The
International Commission on globalisation and human rights
Privacy International
Advisory Board
Statewatch works with a number of partner groups including:
and has its own network of national correspondents in 17 European countries.
Statewatch
is working with its partners - the American Civil Liberties Union
and Privacy International - on a "policy-laundering project.
See website:
The International
Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS) was launched on 20
April 2005. ICAMS was founded by the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU), Focus on the Global South (Thailand), the Friends
Committee on National Legislation (USA), the Independent Civil
Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) and Statewatch. See website:
European Civil Liberties Network
Join "Friends of Statewatch"
Statewatch is registered under the Data Protection Act.
Statewatch is the research and education operation of a UK registered charity and is funded by UK grant-making trusts and donations. "Click" here: To support our work by making a donation online
Statewatch is funded by
© Statewatch
ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals/"fair
dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on
our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed
only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the
relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing
Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms
and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.