Robert J. Cox has been a journalist for nearly six decades. After 20 years with the Buenos Aires Herald, he was a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington in 1980 and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, 1980-81. He became assistant editor of the News and Courier (now the Post and Courier) in Charleston, S.C., in 1982, where he works today.

Cox was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Medal from Columbia University, New York; Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to international journalism; Editor of the Year (Grenada Television, Great Britain, 1980). He served as President of the Inter American Press Association from 2001 to 2002.