 Former Buenos Aires Herald Editor Discusses Covering the Dirty War When No Other Newspapers Would
Former Buenos Aires Herald Editor Robert Cox and his son, David Cox, said it was their dedication to journalism and humanity that kept their family courageous enough to continue reporting the truth and helping people during Argentina’s Dirty War. The father and son, along with Robert Cox’s wife, spoke at the University of Texas at Austin Thursday to share how an English-language newspaper managed to shed light on atrocities happening in Buenos Aires that the rest of Argentine publications ignored.
The Herald was the only Argentine paper that consistently covered kidnappings and murders by government security forces during the “dirty war” against leftists and other opponents. Robert Cox's reporting saved the lives of many of the “disappeared” and helped break the Argentine press' state of constant denial.
“Argentina went mad at that particular time,” Robert Cox said. “Journalism seized in Argentina. There was no information available.” As a journalist, Cox said, the most horrifying thing at the time to him was the failure of the mainstream Argentine press to acknowledge the massive human rights abuses going on in the country.
When a member of the audience asked why Cox, a British citizen, risked his life to report honestly on the Dirty War until his family was forced into exile, Cox responded that he felt as a journalist, it was his job to report the truth. He said he had decided that one day he would be killed and after that he conquered his fear for the most part, heading to work most days as though he had to cover a flower show. His wife and son emphasized that the family could not simply sit back and watch people "disappear" without doing something to help.
David Cox wrote a memoir of the family's exile and their lives during the period: "Dirty Secrets, Dirty War: The Exile of Robert J. Cox (Buenos Aires, Argentina: 1976-1983)." | 
