John Dinges

Last updated
John Dinges
Born (1941-12-08) December 8, 1941 (age 81)
Iowa, U.S.
OccupationJournalist and author
NationalityAmerican
EducationStanford University
GenreNon-fiction
SubjectForeign policy
SpouseCarolina Kenrick
Children3

John Dinges (December 8, 1941 [1] ) is an American journalist. He was special correspondent for Time , Washington Post and ABC Radio in Chile. With a group of Chilean journalists, he cofounded the Chilean magazine APSI . [2] He is the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a position he held from 1996–2016, currently with emeritus status.

Contents

Early life and career

John Dinges was born in Iowa. His first job in journalism was at the Des Moines Register and Tribune, followed by a decades long career as a freelance correspondent in Latin America, foreign desk assistant editor at the Washington Post, and managing editor at NPR. He has a Bachelors Degree in English and Philosophy from Loras College and obtained a Masters Degree from Stanford University in Latin American studies. He studied Theology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, for three years, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest, before switching to journalism. [3]

He worked on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, traveling as a reporter to cover the civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. From 1972 to 1978 Dinges lived in Chile, [4] "one of the few American journalists to live in Chile during its most violent period of military rule". [5] He helped create three Chilean media organizations. The first, APSI/Actualidad Internacional, was founded in 1976, under intense military censorship, and became one of the leading investigative news magazines exposing the abuses of the military. [2]

In 2008 after six-months as a Fulbright visiting professor at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, he created the investigative journalism center, Centro de Investigación e Información Periodística (CIPER), in association with Monica González, a prominent investigative reporter.

In collaboration with investigative journalists Jorge Escalante, Pascale Bonnefoy, María Olivia Mönckeberg and Maria Jose Vilches, he created ArchivosChile, which carried out groundbreaking investigations exploring the secret documentary record of the military government. ArchivosChile was based for several years in the University of Chile’s communications school, ICEI.

He is executive director and board chair of the U.S.-based Center for Investigation and Information (CIINFO) of Washington DC. [2] CIINFO was the non-profit fundraising vehicle for ArchivosChile and CIPER, as well as a series of investigative journalism projects, most recently on Operation Condor and military dictatorships in South America.

From 1985 to 1996 he worked at National Public Radio as managing editor,, acting senior foreign editor and editorial director. [5]

From 1996–2016 he was the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, currently emeritus. [5]

In April 2015, John Dinges provided extensive testimony as a witness for Prosecutor Pablo Ouviña during the "Plan Condor" trial in Buenos Aires, Argentina. [6] [7] As a expert on Operation Condor, Dinges is the most frequently cited expert witness in the prosecutor's case due to his significant contributions to the investigation across multiple countries including Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and the United States. His contributions include authoring two notable books - "Assassination on Embassy Row" and "The Condor Years" - conducting interviews with over a dozen police, military agents, and victims, and gathering crucial data from intelligence archives in the region. [8] In May 2016, the verdict of the tribunal, the "Tribunal Oral Federal N°1," declared 15 convictions directly related to the forced disappearance of 106 victims. [9]

Personal life

Dinges married Carolina Kenrick. They have 3 children; Tomas was born in Santiago in 1977 and lives and works in Chile, Sebastián and Camila were born in Washington DC.

Books

Awards

He serves on the advisory boards of Human Rights Watch and the National Security Archive, [12] and is a juror for the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes and the du-Pont Columbia awards.

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References

  1. ↑ "Dinges, John, 1941– – LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)".
  2. 1 2 3 "Creation of CIPER and CIINFO: Investigative Journalism Center". John Dinges. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "John Dinges". WP. 2018. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  4. ↑ John Dinges (2017-04-04). "Expats After the Coup". Baffler. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  5. 1 2 3 "Assassination, Justice And Chile's Presidential Election". NPR Weekend edition. 2009-12-03. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  6. ↑ Osorio, Carlos (May 6, 2015). "OPERATION CONDOR: National Security Archive Presents Trove of Declassified Documentation in Historic Trial in Argentina". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  7. ↑ Osorio, Carlos (May 27, 2016). "Operation Condor Verdict: GUILTY! | National Security Archive". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  8. ↑ "Plan Condor | Ministerio Público Fiscal | Procuración General de la Nación". www.mpf.gob.ar. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  9. ↑ "Plan Cóndor". www.cels.org.ar. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
  10. ↑ "John Dinges discusses his book "Assassination on Embassy Row"". Stud Terkel. 1980-09-06. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  11. ↑ TheEdgars.com, Edgars database Archived 2019-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Kornbluth and Dinges (2004-12-04). "The Case Against Pinochet". nsarchive2.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
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