Jon Snow: A Witness to History

Jon Snow: A Witness to History is an exclusive new documentary in which Snow, the former Channel 4 News anchor, looks back on his five decades of reporting from trouble spots around the world and tells us what he's learned over that time. His start as a broadcast reporter came with the launch of LBC radio in 1973. One of his first assignments was to cover a siege where IRA bombers had taken a married couple hostage in central London. In the following years, he memorably reported on frontline conflicts from Northern Ireland to Africa for LBC, and the brutal regime of Uganda's General Idi Amin. In 1976, he was headhunted by ITN to be an on-air frontline TV journalist. One key assignment that established his credentials and displayed his great courage in the face of danger was a series of reports from the notoriously volatile republic of El Salvador, where he exposed the horrific killings of left-wing opponents by the US-backed military junta running the country. Death squads murdered countless teachers, doctors, academics, American nuns and foreign journalists as well as thousands of Salvadorian peasants. Jon was very lucky to get out alive. But he had the bug, and went on to cover many major stories around the world, including the Islamic revolution in Iran, the freeing of Nelson Mandela, the Israel/Palestinian conflict, 9/11, and Obama's election as the first black president of the USA followed by Trump's election, among the most prominent. The passion that drives Jon to tell the truth about the world he has witnessed remains as strong as ever in this remarkable film.