Golden Dawn Watch is an initiative founded in 2015 to monitor the trial against the neo-nazi organization Golden Dawn, which started on 20.4.2015 and lasted 5 years.
GDW has been monitoring every trial day, reporting from inside the courtroom through its facebook and twitter accounts. The trial ended in October 2020. Golden Dawn was convicted as a criminal organization, the whole team of its leaders was imprisoned and many members got prison sentences for various crimes. The appeals procedure started in 2022. GDW, with the support of Guerilla Foundation, is in the courtroom again, reporting, making the trial visible and keeping the eyes of the society open for racist crimes and far-right terrorism. The initiative is supported in various ways by antiracist and antifascist organisations, foundations, NGOs, citizens’ groups and migrant organisations.
The aims of GDW are:
–to make public all information concerning Golden Dawn’s actions and to illuminate all aspects of the trial
–for every citizen, in Greece and abroad, to have continuous and reliable information about everything that happens inside and outside of the courtroom throughout the duration of the trial
–to provide analysis from specialists, lawyers and the monitoring team of GDW
–to keep Golden Dawn and its actions in the light
What GDW does:
The initiative Golden Dawn Watch, through accredited colleagues, monitors the trial from the courtroom, each day, from the beginning to the end. Their work includes:
–publishing a summary report in Greek after each day at court
–publishing monthly reports in English, so as to keep the international public informed
–publishing on a regular basis commentaries on the coverage of the Golden Dawn trial in the Greek Press
–being a point of reference about the trial, providing information and insights to Greek and international media / organizations, and contributing with our members to events concerning the trial
Live streaming of the Golden Dawn trial is fundamental, both in terms of awareness-raising of the public as well as feeding information to national and international media. From their experience of the trial monitoring up to now, the social media accounts of GDW are being followed by thousands of users; indicatively their Twitter/X account has 14,800 followers and their facebook page 35K followers. Since the Press does not show interest on the everyday coverage of the trial, interested people in Greece rely on GDW for their timely, independent and reliable information on what is going on inside the courtroom. GDW has been a point of reference for all the 5 years of the trial (on the first instance) and during the appeal procedure up to now.
Total reach is fluctuating according to the momentum, but an indicative metric showcasing the importance of this effort is that in October 2020, ie. the month of the verdict on the 1st instance trial, the total reach of GDW surpassed 650,000 accounts. Also, tweets of the last trimester of the trial surpassed 11 million impressions. A relevant dynamic has been visible in the first months of the appeal process; they now translate summaries of the reports will also be translated in English in order to reach the international public.
