(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 23 November 1997, during an interview with a group of female journalists, President Carlos Menem referred to Horacio Verbitsky, a founding member of Periodistas, in a disparaging manner because of a journalistic investigation published that day in the daily “Pagina/12”. According to official information made public by the Press and Publication Secretariat […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 23 November 1997, during an interview
with a group of female journalists, President Carlos Menem
referred to Horacio Verbitsky, a founding member of Periodistas,
in a disparaging manner because of a journalistic investigation
published that day in the daily “Pagina/12”.
According to official information made public by the Press and
Publication Secretariat (Secretaria de Prensa y Difusion), the
first question asked by the journalists concerned the report by
Verbitsky about an attempt to liquidate the debt of companies
owned by the Yoma family during the privatization of the Banco
Nacion, one of the remaining state-owned banks but which is first
in terms of deposits held. Menem’s response was the following:
“It’s a statement made by a true criminal, a terrorist who has
not yet been judged so by society, as he should be. He is
responsible for many deaths in Argentina, and he makes such a
claim (about the alleged liquidation) without any basis in fact.
I have nothing to do with, for example, the Yoma group but for my
marriage to the sister of the current owners of the firm.
Moreover, this plan to privatize the bank does not stem from a
proposal of the President of the Nation; rather, it has been in
place for a long time and is an idea of the Minister of Finance.
It is nothing more than an idea. However, we know all too well
what this person (Verbitsky) does with such ideas, who has always
caused harm not only to the President of the Nation but also to
all governing officials, and who, I repeat, was one of the
principal players in this truly dirty war that has existed in
Argentina for many years.”
In an opinion page piece published on 25 November in “Pagina/12”,
Verbitsky answered Menem’s accusations. “The written
transcription of these desperate words allows one to assess who
is causing harm in the form of a response – a response not to an
act of terrorism but to a journalistic article full of
information that has not been nor can be denied. The author of
the article is not responsible for anyone’s death, in any time or
place. He has always lived in Argentina and was never detained
nor tried over an illegal act. He has merely had to withstand the
constant complaints filed by the Head of State and the members of
his government because of his work as a journalist, and in every
instance he has been absolved. As for him, he has not filed a
complaint either to the President or to his ministers because he
knows that any opinion that contributes to the political debate
cannot be suppressed, not even those that are ostensibly false
and which originate from a place that reveals them to be
authentic abuses of power,” wrote Verbitsky.
