Horacio Verbitsky

Horacio Verbitsky "is one of Argentina's leading investigative journalists, and a columnist and press freedom activist." His biography goes on to add:


 * "In January 1991, Verbitsky was thrust into the national spotlight after writing an article alleging that Argentine president Carlos Menem's brother-in-law had demanded a bribe from a company in return for tax exemption. The scandal became known as Swiftgate. Menem called Verbitsky's scoop "a journalistic crime," but the affair forced the president to purge half his cabinet and put corruption on the national agenda.


 * "His best-selling book The Flight contained the first public confessions of an official involved in Argentina's "dirty war" and related how hundreds of prisoners of the military regime from 1976 to 1983 were thrown to their deaths from airplanes. Verbitsky has played a front-line role in strengthening democracy and safeguarding press freedoms in Argentina and Latin America."

Juan E. Mendez "of Human Rights Watch/Americas, who contributes the useful afterword to this book." 

He received HRW's The Hellman/Hammett Grant in 1998.



Verbitsky, "a prominent journalist who also heads the Center of Legal and Social Studies, an Argentine human rights group." 

On November 20, 2001, he received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. 


 * Member, Human Rights Watch Americas Advisory Committee
 * Verbitisky is one of the founders of the Latin American press freedom organization Periodistas.
 * Member, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
 * Advisory Board, Fundacion Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano