Jon Snow (journalist)

Jonathan George Snow HonFRIBA (born 28 September 1947) is an English journalist and television presenter.

However, he did not complete his undergraduate studies, being expelled for his part in a 1970 anti-apartheid socialist student protest, which he later described as "an absolute watershed in my life".

After his law degree studies were terminated at Liverpool University, Snow was hired by Lord Longford to direct the New Horizon Youth Centre, a day centre for homeless young people in central London, an organisation with which he has remained involved and of which he subsequently became chairman.

In 1973 he became a presenter on LBC Radio, a then new commercial radio station.

In 1976, Snow reportedly rejected an approach by British intelligence services to spy on his colleagues.

At first he was asked to supply information about the Communist Party, but he was then asked to spy on certain "left-wing people" working in television.

In return he would have received secret monthly, tax-free payments, matching his then salary.

By 1978, he was working as a correspondent for ITN, and in November of that year was sent on a mission to Vietnam to report on the plight of the boat people.

In 1980, in the early stages of the Iran–Iraq War, he helped rescue a British ship that had become trapped in Iranian waters.

He served as ITN's Washington correspondent (1983–1986) and as diplomatic editor (1986–1989) before becoming the main presenter of Channel 4 News in 1989.

He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he presented from 1989 to 2021.

On 29 April 2021, Snow announced his retirement from the role; his final programme aired on 23 December 2021.

Although Channel 4's news programming is produced by ITN, Snow was employed directly by the broadcaster.

(Previously ITN's programme had typically been presented by Alastair Burnet, who left ITN in 1991. The 1992 election night programme was the only one hosted by Snow. He was replaced by Jonathan Dimbleby from 1997 onwards.) Snow has won several RTS Awards – two for reports from El Salvador, one for his reporting of the Kegworth air disaster as well as the 1995 Award for Best Male Presenter and the 1980 Award for TV Journalist of the Year for his coverage of Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East.

Snow is known for sporting his vast collection of colourful ties and socks.

While working as a journalist in Uganda, he flew alongside President Idi Amin in the presidential jet, and Snow has recounted how while Amin appeared to be asleep he thought seriously about taking Amin's revolver and shooting him dead, but was worried about the consequences of firing a loose round in a jet.

In 1992, he was the main anchor for ITN's election night programme, broadcast on ITV; he presented the programme alongside Robin Day, Alastair Stewart and Julia Somerville.

Snow has held numerous honorary appointments, including Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.

Snow was born in Ardingly, Sussex, the son of George D'Oyly Snow, Bishop of Whitby, and Joan, a pianist who studied at the Royal College of Music.

He is a grandson of First World War General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow (about whom he writes in his foreword to Ronald Skirth's war memoir The Reluctant Tommy) and is the cousin of retired BBC television news presenter Peter Snow.

He grew up at Ardingly College, where his father was headmaster.

In 2002 he returned to radio, presenting Jon Snow Reports on Oneword Radio, a weekly show and podcast.

He wrote regular articles for the Channel 4 News website and Snowmail – a daily email newsletter on the big stories coming up on the evening edition of Channel 4 News.

In 2003, at the height of the dodgy dossier affair, Alastair Campbell walked into the studio to rebut statements by the BBC.

Without notes or preparation, Snow attempted to question Campbell about the affair.

The book was published by Harper Perennial and detailed Snow's life from his childhood up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Snow refuses to wear any symbol that may represent his views on air; in the run up to Remembrance Day, he condemned what he called "poppy fascism" because "in the end there really must be more important things in life than whether a news presenter wears symbols on his lapels".

In 2004, Snow published an autobiography, Shooting History.

On 28 February 2008, Snow said that the silence of the British media on the decision to allow Prince Harry to fight in Afghanistan was unacceptable: "I never thought I'd find myself saying thank God for Drudge. The infamous US blogger has broken the best kept editorial secret of recent times. Editors have been sworn to secrecy over Prince Harry being sent to fight in Afghanistan three months ago."

These remarks provoked criticism from some viewers and media outlets.

On 9 February 2009, Snow interviewed Lt-Col Yvonne Bradley, the military counsel for Binyam Mohamed, a British resident detained for five years at Guantánamo Bay.

Snow asked whether Mohamed's allegations of torture were justified; Bradley said there was no doubt at all that he had been tortured.

Mohamed was released and returned to Britain on 23 February 2009.

In November 2010 Snow was sent to Haiti to report on the cholera outbreak.

On 14 June 2011, Snow presented the multiple award-winning investigation documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, directed by Callum Macrae, which documented war crimes committed in the final days of the Sri Lankan conflict in 2009.

In 2013, he recounted how the inquiry into Sir Jimmy Savile had allowed him to re-evaluate his own childhood, having been molested by one of the college's domestic staff when he was aged six.

Snow won a choral scholarship to Winchester Cathedral and spent five years at the Pilgrims' School.

He subsequently attended St Edward's School in Oxford.

When he was 18, he spent a year as a VSO volunteer teaching in Uganda.

After mixed success in his first attempt to pass his A-level qualifications, he moved to the Yorkshire Coast College, Scarborough, where he later obtained the necessary qualifications to gain a place reading Law at the University of Liverpool.